LYELL'S DEBT TO DAEWIN 7 



are the three lines of argument — two based on 

 geographical distribution, one on the relation 

 between the living and the dead — which first 

 led Darwin toward a belief in evolution. The 

 thoughts which shook the world arose in a mind 

 whose whole tone had been altered by Lyell's 

 teachings. Inasmuch as the founder of modern 

 geology received his first inspiration from 

 Buckland, Oxford may claim some share in 

 moulding the mind of Darwin.^ 



It is deeply interesting to set beside the 

 evidence of Darwin's debt to Lyell the words in 

 which Lyell gives us some conception of what 

 Darwin's friendship — even in its early days — 

 meant for him. Not long after Darwin's mar- 

 riage (Jan. 29, 1839), when he and his wife 

 were contemplating leaving London for the 

 country, LyeU wrote: — 



' I cannot tell you how often since your long illness I 

 have missed the friendly intercourse which we had so 

 frequently before, and on which I built more than ever after 

 your marriage. It will not happen easily that twice in 

 one's life, even in the large world of London, a congenial 

 soul so occupied with precisely the same pursuits and with 

 an independence enabling him to pursue them will fall so 

 nearly in my way, and to have had it snatched from me 

 with the prospect of your residence somewhat far off is 

 a privation I feel to be a very great one.' ^ 



1 See also pp. 86, 87. 



^ July?, 1841?. More Letters, i. 31. Darwin left London for 

 Down on Sept. 14, 1842. 



