CHAPTER XIII. 



THE LIFE OF LYELL. 



The study of existing nature and its changes undertaken in order 

 to comprehend the past changes during geological ages — The 

 uniformity of natural operations under law — Catastrophes 

 abolished — The succession of life on the globe, and that of the 

 tertiary ages explained — The antiquity of man and of the great 

 ice age considered. 



Charles Lyell was born in Forfarshire, at Kin- 

 nordy, on November 14th, 1797. His father was 

 an able, wealthy, well-educated gentleman ; and 

 his mother, a Yorkshire lady, had the usual good 

 sound sense of the women of that county. He was 

 the eldest of ten children, the whole of whom grew 

 up ; and he, as is commonly the case in large 

 families, was a good son and brother, and a most 

 independent man in mind and action. 



Charles Lyell's family resided, for years, in the 

 south of England after his birth, and the boy was 

 sent to school early ; and in his amusing history of 

 his schoolboy days, which is given in the " Life 

 of Sir Charles Lyell," edited by his sister-in-law, 



