NATURE 
145 
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1881 
CHARLES LYELL 
Life, Letters, and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., 
Author of the Principles of Geology, &c. "Edited by 
his Sister-in-law, Mrs. Lyell. In two volumes. With 
Portrait. (London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 
1881.) 
I. 
i HE Principles of Geology” and “The Origin of 
Species’’ are the two books which have un- 
questionably exercised the most powerful influence upon 
the direction of scientific thought during the present 
century. The first of these works not only prepared the 
way for the second, but, as Darwin himself tas told us, 
may actually be regarded as its progenitor, for it was the 
study of the “Principles” which induced the young 
naturalist to make his now famous “ Voyage Round the 
World” and to collect those facts and observations out 
of which eventually grew the theory of Naturai Selec- 
tion. The wonderful revolution in thought which fol- 
lowed the appearance of the ‘‘ Origin of Species” is still 
fresh in our minds, but those who could remember the 
effects produced by the publication of “ The Principles of 
Geology,” were wont to relate that fifty years ago scientific 
thought and speculation received an impetus no less 
powerful than that of which we have witnessed the results 
in our own time, 
The story of the life of Sir Charles Lyell is the history of 
“The Principles of Geology,” for all Lyell’s other scien- 
tific writings are either expansions of portions of that 
great work, or are in some way or other supplementary to 
it. In the account of Lyell’s earlier years we trace the 
birth and development of the ideas so clearly embodied 
in this famous book, while by the records of his later 
years we are reminded of the untiring energy with which 
he collected materials to expand and illustrate those ideas 
in the successive editions of the work. 
The volumes before us enable us for the first time to 
trace this interesting story in all its details, and we can- 
not speak too highly of the skill and judgment with which 
the editor has arranged the materials at her command. 
The book consists essentially of Lyell’s own journals and 
letters, a few short explanatory notes on the chief events 
of his life-being interspersed in small type and inserted be- 
tween brackets, together with a few foot-notes explaining 
allusions or giving details about persons mentioned in 
the letters. 
Lyell, though born in Scotland, was by descent and 
education an Englishman. His earlier years were spent 
either in the New Forest and the towns in the south of 
England, where he went to school, or at the home at 
Kinnordy, in Forfarshire, where the family usually spent 
theautumn. In the south of England young Lyell, whose 
attention had been from boyhood directed to entomology, 
had the opportunity of studying the Tertiary deposits of 
the Hampshire basin ; while in Forfarshire the draining of 
a small loch on his father’s property and the excavation 
of the “marl”’ with which it had become filled, appear to 
have early directed his attention to some of the impor- 
tant questions connected with the mode of deposition of 
VoL. xxv.—No. 633 
strata and the way in which organic remains become im- 
bedded in them—questions afterwards treated by him 
with such skill and ingenuity in the “ Principles.” Lyell’s 
two first papers, published in the Zyansactions of the 
Geological Society, relate to the strata of the Hampshire 
Basin and the formation of these mar]l-deposits in the lakes 
of Forfarshire. 
At the age of seventeen Lyell went to Oxford, and 
there came under the influence of the brilliant and 
versatile, but eccentric, Buckland. But though impressed 
with the eloquence and filled with admiration at the 
energy of his teacher, there is evidence that at a very 
early date Lyell’s mind underwent a revolt against the 
bold but shallow theorisings of the Oxford professor. 
When a few years later Buckland published his “ Re- 
liquize Diluviane,’’ we find the pupil not only in open 
opposition to the master, but actually leading the attacks 
of the “ Fluvialists” against the great stronghold of the 
“ Diluvialists.” 
Upon leaving Oxford, Lyell was destined for the bag, but 
he, after reading law for a short time, was obliged to desist 
on account of the weakness of his eyesight. Under these 
circumstances he repaired to Paris, where he had the 
opportunity of constant intercourse with Cuvier, Brong- 
niart, Humboldt, Constant Prévost, and the other brilliant 
scientific thinkers who were at that period assembled in the 
French capital. He at the same time studied with care 
the Tertiaries of the Paris basin, comparing the strata 
and their fossils with those with which he was already so 
familiar in Hampshire. 
Lyell had now become so thoroughly engrossed in 
scientific work that all idea of advancement at the bar 
was abandoned by him, and after going two years upon 
the Western Circuit, he seems to have finally relinquished 
law for literature and science. He first began to write in 
the Quarterly Review, having formed a close friendship 
with Lockhart, then editor of that journal, and, after some 
papers upon educational questions, he in 1827 undertook 
a review of Scrope’s “ Geology and Extinct Volcanoes of 
Central France.” It was in this work that Lyell first 
showed how entirely he had adopted the principles enun- 
ciated by Hutton and Playfair, and how far he was in 
advance of his most eminent contemporaries, Buckland 
and Sedgwick in England, and Cuvier and Humboldt on 
the Continent. 
The five years from 1825 to 1830, during which Lyell 
was maturing his literary style by writing for the reviews 
and collecting the materials for his great work, may be 
regarded as the turning-point of his career, and the letters 
written by him at this period are of the greatest interest 
to the historians of science. We cannot forbear from 
making a few extracts illustrating the nature of his work 
and his views at this period. On June 22, 1826, he wrote 
to his friend Dr. Mantell— 
**7 must not sport radical, as I am become a Quarterly 
Reviewer. You will see my article just out on ‘ Scientific 
Institutions, by which some of my friends here think I 
have carried the strong works of the enemy by storm. 
I am now far on with a second, and hope to get it out in 
less than three months. I mean to help myself out of 
Cuvier largely, for I must write what w7// de read” (vol. 
p- 164). 
On March 2, 1827, he writes to the same correspondent 
as follows :— 
H 
