434 MY LIFE 



of the sufficiency of natural selection to explain the origin 

 of man's mental and moral nature. Sir Charles Lyell's 

 character is well exhibited in what he wrote Darwin soon 

 after its publication (March n, 1863). " I find myself, after 

 reasoning through a whole chapter, in favour of man's com- 

 ing from the animals, relapsing to my old views whenever I 

 read again a few pages of the ' Principles,' or yearn for 

 fossil types of intermediate grades. Truly, I ought to be 

 charitable to Sedgwick and others. Hundreds who have 

 bought my book in the hope that I should demolish heresy 

 will be awfully confounded and disappointed. . . . What 

 I am anxious to effect is to avoid positive inconsistencies in 

 different parts of my book, owing probably to the old trains 

 of thought, the old ruts, interfering with the new course. 

 But you ought to be satisfied, as I shall bring hundreds 

 towards you, who, if I treated the matter more dogmatically, 

 would have rebelled. I have spoken out to the utmost extent 

 of my tether, so far as my reason goes, and further than my 

 imagination and sentiment can follow, which I suppose, has 

 caused occasional incongruities" ("Life of Sir Charles 

 Lyell," vol. ii. p. 363). These passages well exhibit the 

 difficulties with which the writer had to contend, and serve 

 to explain that careful setting forth of opposing facts and 

 arguments without stating any definite conclusion, which is 

 felt to be unsatisfactory in some portions of his great works. 



During the ten years 1863-72, I saw a good deal of Sir 

 Charles. If he had any special subject on which he wished 

 for information, he would sometimes walk across the park to 

 St. Mark's Crescent for an hour's conversation ; at other 

 times he would ask me to lunch with him, either to meet 

 some interesting visitor or for friendly talk. After my mar- 

 riage we occasionally dined with him or went to his evening 

 receptions. These latter were very interesting, both because 

 they were not overcrowded and on account of the number 

 of scientific and other men of eminence to be met there. 

 Among these were Professor Tyndall, Sir Charles Wheat- 

 stone, Sir Charles Bunbury, Mr. Lecky, and a great many 



