A Geological Retrospect of the Year 1802. 147 



onward marcli of science, we may well wonder that such a contro- 

 versy should ever have arisen at all, or that having been started 

 it should have been waged so keenly and for so long. We must 

 remember, liowever, that in those days the range of actual definite 

 knowledge in regard to geological processes was still comparatively 

 narrow, while at the same time the natural tendency to speculation 

 and theory could be indulged in without much hindrance from the 

 control of ascertained fact. On both sides of the dispute, imagination 

 played a not unimportant part in the theoretical views proposed ; 

 but in this respect the partizans of Water must be allowed to have 

 stood pre-eminent. Their complacent defiance of the laws of physics 

 and chemistry, imperfectly as these were appreciated a hundred years 

 ago, is one of the most curious episodes in the history of geology. 

 The advocates of Fire came much nearer to the truth as we now 

 understand it, though they too were inclined to push their distinctive 

 opinions somewhat further than the known facts warranted. 



It was while this contest of the rival schools had reached its 

 height that the two volumes to which I wish to ask your attention 

 made their appearance. Between the respective writers of these 

 books — Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and John Play fair — some curious 

 parallels may be remarked. They were both intended by their 

 parents to become ecclesiastics, the one in the Roman Catholic 

 Church of France, the other in the Protestant Kirk of Scotland, but 

 both eventually drifted into the ranks of science. Neither of them 

 was a professed geologist, but was engaged, during most of his 

 career, in the prosecution and teaching of widely different branches 

 of knowledge. Both of them had passed middle life before they 

 appear to have given much thought to the problems of geology, and 

 neither of them published any special work on the subject save the 

 volume which appeared in 1802. Each was led by a different path 

 into the geological field of observation and theory, and, so far as 

 known, neither had any acquaintance with what the other was 

 engaged upon. While they entei'ed upon the consideration of the 

 subject from opposite sides of enquiry, they both endeavoured to 

 take a broad view of Nature in order to frame a connected scheme 

 of geological philosophy. And lastly, both sought to establish what 

 in the language of their day was called a " Theory of the Earth " — in 

 other words, a systematic grouping and discussion of the various 

 processes whereby geological changes are effected. 



Among the recorded careers of men of science, none surely is 

 more picturesque than that of Lamarck. Born in 17M, of an old 

 but not opulent family long settled in Picardy, he was, as I have said, 

 originally destined for the Church, but when a lad of no more than 17 

 the martial ti'aditions of his race proved too strong to be fettered by 

 ecclesiastical restraints, and on the death of his father he boldly 

 set out to offer himself as a volunteer in the French Army, then at 

 war in Germany. He arrived at the front on the eve of a battle, 

 at which he next day so distinguished himself for his coolness and 

 bravery that he was at once promoted on the field to be an officer. 

 Owing, however, to an accident that happened to him not long after 



