Rericics—Life of Sir Charles Lijcll, Bart. 365 



Phillips' Life of William Smith, and in the Letters and Extracts 

 from the Writings of J. Beete Jukes. To these works, as well as to 

 the one before ns, we look for the reminiscences of Fitton, Mantel 1, 

 Buckland, De la Beche, Conybeare, Horner, Lonsdale, Greenough, 

 Phillips, Scrope, and other distinguished geologists, the story of 

 whose lives is unwritten, and some of whose principal works, unlike 

 those of Lyell, are hidden in the uninviting pages of Journals and 

 Transactions. The life of Sedgwick, spoken of by Lyell as the 

 " first of men," we hope ere long to receive from his able successor 

 in the Woodwardian Professorship. 



We have for the most part to form our own opinions of Ly ell's 

 personal characteristics from his letters. Originally intended to 

 follow the legal profession, he was called to the Bar in 1825, and 

 went the Western Circuit for two years, but this he relinquished, 

 and devoted his time almost entirely to his aim of furthering geo- 

 logical science. The current of his life seems on the whole to have 

 flowed very easily : he had no struggles to maintain his existence, 

 time and monej' were at his command, nor had he any children to 

 disturb the repose of his household. 



The later letters contain many allusions to the Darwinian 

 Theory, which will be read with interest. But as early as the 

 year 1827 he " devoured Lamarck," saying, " His theories delighted 

 me more than any novel T ever read, and much in the same way, for 

 they address themselves to the imagination. ... I am glad that 

 he has been courageous enough and logical enough to admit that his 

 argument, if pushed as far as it must go, if worth anything, would 

 prove that men may have come from the Ourang-Outang. But 

 after all, what changes species may really undergo !" 



The dinners at the Geological Club are mentioned in several 

 places, and serve to show that brethren of the hammer can be genial 

 as well as scientific. At one gathering, in 1823, Prof. Oersted (of 

 Copenhagen) remarked, much to the amusement of the company, 

 ' Your public dinners, gentlemen, I do love, they are a sort of sacra- 

 ment, in which you do beautifully blend the spiritual and the 

 corporeal!!'" Again, in 1831, Lyell says, "I had a hard task 

 yesterday to keep my resolutions of severe temperance, for Murchison 

 was so unwell, that he asked me to preside at the Geological Society 

 club dinner, and take his friend Colin Mackenzie to it ; so I was 

 obliged to push about the bottle, and to sham taking a fair quantity 

 of wine." Another cheerful meeting he mentions in 1838, when 

 "After the aniversary evening [of the Geological Society], Lord 

 Cole pressed me so hard to go and eat pterodactyl (alias woodcock) 

 pie at his rooms, that I went, with Whewell, Buckland, Owen, Clift, 

 Egerton, Broderip, Hamilton, Major Clerk, Lord Adair ; and there 

 we were till two o'clock, fines inflicted of bumpers of cognac on all 

 who talked any ' ology.' Cigar smoke so strong as half to turn one's 

 stomach. I lost the enjoyment of Murchison's dinner next day, 

 and for five days did only a half day's work or less." 



Lyell was President of the Geological Society in 1836 and 1837, 

 and also in 1850 and 1851. In 1857 he was again invited to take 

 the chair, but refused. Writing to Mr. Horner (from Lausanne) he 



