16 Sir Charles Lyell and Modem Geology. [Jan., 



1 Antiquity of Man,' an attempt to account for the apparent paradox, 

 " that writers who are most in favour of transmutation are never- 

 theless among those who are most cautious, and one would say 

 timid, in their mode of espousing the doctrine of progression; 

 while, on the other hand, the most zealous advocates of progression 

 are oftener than not very vehement opponents of transmutation." 

 Sir Charles endeavours to explain it by the belief of the former in 

 the incompleteness of the geological record, and of the latter in its 

 completeness ; but it appears to us that there is a great deal more 

 in the caution of the Darwinian than is dreamt of even in Sir 

 Charles Lyell's philosophy. 



So long as the doctrine of " transmutation of species " possessed 

 only the old and crude form given to it by Lamarck, and so clearly 

 illustrated by the author of the ' Yestiges,' Sir Charles Lyell at- 

 tacked it with considerable vehemence. But a careful consideration 

 of the theory of Natural Selection, and frequent conversations with 

 Mr. Darwin on the subject, have had the effect we should have an- 

 ticipated on the opinions of so thorough a master of the mode in 

 which the causes of change operate. The principle involved in Mr. 

 Darwin's hypothesis is one congenial to the mind of the author of 

 the ' Principles.' A cause producing a small effect, which becomes 

 greater and greater in the course of ages by successive repetitions, 

 is one of all others most calculated to enlist the sympathies and 

 charm the mind of the man who has for thirty-six years been 

 endeavouring to establish the self-same idea in its application to 

 inorganic nature. So we were not surprised to find Sir Charles 

 Lyell, in the 'x^ntiquity of Man,' bringing to bear the vast and 

 varied mass of information at his command in favour of the pro- 

 bability of the new doctrine. We were disappointed at not finding 

 more light thrown on it from a geological point of view ; but this 

 defect will no doubt be remedied in the forthcoming edition of the 

 1 Principles,' and is to a great extent compensated by some beauti- 

 fully conceived arguments drawn from the analogy supplied by 

 other fields of inquiry. 



It is not now our intention to discuss the theory of descent with 

 modification, that has very recently been done in this Journal ;* 

 but we shall examine two or three of Sir Charles Lyell's arguments 

 in its favour, not so much on account of their illustrating the theory 

 itself, as because they throw light on the nature of the predomi- 

 nating feature in the mental constitution of Sir Charles Lyell 

 himself, — an object which we have had in view throughout this 

 review of his labours. 



Perhaps the most remarkable of these arguments is that drawn 

 from the very clever comparison of a natural history species to a 

 language, and consequently of Mr. Darwin's theory to the Aryan 



* No. 10, April, 1866, pp. 151-176. 



