LONDON. 73 



but on no account to accept the views therein advo- 

 cated. How differently would any one now speak of 

 the ' Principles ' ! I am proud to remember that the 

 first place, namely, St. Jago, in the Cape de Verde 

 archipelago, in which I geologised, convinced me of 

 the infinite superiority of Lyell's views over those 

 advocated in any other work known to me. 



The powerful effects of Lyell's works could for- 

 merly be plainly seen in the different progress of the 

 science in France and England. The present total 

 oblivion of Elie de Beaumont's wild hypotheses, such 

 as his ' Craters of Elevation ' and ' Lines of Elevation' 

 (which latter hypothesis I heard Sedgwick at the 

 Geological Society lauding to the skies), may be 

 largely attributed to Lyell. 



I saw a good deal of Robert Brown, " facile Princeps 

 Botanicorum," as he was called by Humboldt. He 

 seemed to me to be chiefly remarkable for the minute- 

 ness of his observations, and their perfect accuracy. 

 His knowledge was extraordinarily great, and much 

 died with him, owing to his excessive fear of ever 

 making a mistake. He poured out his knowledge 

 to me in the most unreserved manner, yet was 

 strangely jealous on some points. I called on him 

 two or three times before the voyage of the Beagle, 

 and on one occasion he asked me to look through a 

 microscope and describe what I saw. This I did, 

 and believe now that it was the marvellous currents 

 of protoplasm in some vegetable cell. I then asked 

 him what I had seen ; but he answered me, " That is 

 my little secret." 



