72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



was his hearty sympathy with the work of other 

 scientific men.* 



On my return from the voyage of the Beagle, 

 I explained to him my views on coral-reefs, which 

 differed from his, and I was greatly surprised and 

 encouraged by the vivid interest which he showed. 

 His delight in science was ardent, and he felt the 

 keenest interest in the future progress of mankind. 

 He was very kind-hearted, and thoroughly liberal in 

 his religious beliefs, or rather disbeliefs ; but he was a 

 strong theist. His candour was highly remarkable. 

 He exhibited this by becoming a convert to the 

 Descent theory, though he had gained much fame by 

 opposing Lamarck's views, and this after he had 

 grown old. He reminded me that I had many years 

 before said to him, when discussing the opposition of 

 the old school of geologists to his new views, " What 

 a good thing it would be if every scientific man was to 

 die when sixty years old, as afterwards he would be 

 sure to oppose all new doctrines." But he hoped that 

 now he might be allowed to live. 



The science of Geology is enormously indebted to 

 Lyell more so, as I believe, than to any other man 

 who ever lived. When [I was] starting on the voyage 

 of the Beagle, the sagacious Henslow, who, like all other 

 geologists, believed at that time in successive cata- 

 clysms, advised me to get and study the first volume 

 of the ' Principles/ which had then just been published, 



* The slight repetition here ob- April, 1881, a few years after the 

 servable is accounted for by the notes rest of the 'Recollections' were 

 on Lyell, &c., having been added in written. 



