256 SIR CHARLES LYELL. 



head, which he was good enough to communicate 

 to me. He speaks English well. I attend lectures 

 at the Jardin du Roi, on mining, geology, chemistry, 

 and zoology, all gratis ! by the first men. ... I 

 have promised Humboldt to pass the afternoon to- 

 day in his study. His new edition serves as a 

 famous lesson to me, in the comparison of England 

 and the Continent. There are few heroes who lose 

 so little by being approached as Humboldt." 



Who shall estimate the value of such a friendship 

 to a young man ! It was a foregone conclusion 

 that Lyell and Agassiz and Liebig, and others, who 

 sought the society of such as Humboldt, and were 

 ivilling to work, would come to greatness. 



Cuvier introduced Lyell to Professor Van Breda 

 of Ghent, who gave him letters to all the Dutch 

 universities, Ghent, Amsterdam, Haarlem, and 

 Leyden. 



The next year, 1824, Lyell made a geological 

 tour with M. Constant Prevost, a noted French 

 geologist, from London to Bristol and Land's End, 

 and with Dr. Buckland, in Scotland, where they 

 dined with the far-famed Francis Jeffrey, editor of 

 the "Edinburgh Review." Ly ell's eyes still trou- 

 bled him so that he could scarcely write letters 

 home ; but he was laying up a store of knowl- 

 edge from which the world was to profit in a few 

 years. 



In 1825, his eyes having improved, he resumed 

 his law study, and was admitted to the bar. But 

 he could not give up geological work, and published 



