iv 



direct attacks ; and to his more ardent friend was committed the congenial 

 task o£ applying and driving home the arguments of the ' Principles ' in a 

 series of reviews of the work. The first and second volumes were intro- 

 duced to the public by appreciative and discriminative notices in the 

 ' Quarterly,' which were written by Scrope ; and the completion of the 

 third edition in 1835 was made the occasion of a final article from the 

 same pen. 



In these able reviews, which are admitted to have produced a very great 

 effect at the time they were written, and which may be still read with 

 much profit, Scrope took up certain positions somewhat in advance of his 

 friend in geological theory. Thus we find him, even at this early date, 

 demurring to the too absolutely uniformitarian doctriues of Hutton and 

 Lyell, and maintaining views very similar to those developed by Prof. 

 Huxley in his Anniversary Address to the Greological Society in 1869. 

 On the question, too, of the relative influence of subaerial and marine 

 denudation in originating the forms of the earth's surface, Scrope at this 

 early date maintained views which his friend was not prepared to accept 

 till some years later. 



Unfortunately, however, for geological science, Scrope had by this 

 time almost forsaken scientific for political labours ; but of his useful 

 and honourable public career this is not the place to speak. Nevertheless 

 when, in 1858, he found his friend LyeU again engaged in a controversy 

 ^dth the supporters of the " Theory of Elevation-Craters," he determined 

 once more to bear his part in meeting the new arguments of their old oppo- 

 nents ; and the pubhcation of his able memoir " On the formation of Cones 

 and Craters " was the consequence of this resolve. As he now began gra- 

 dually to withdraw himself from the sphere of politics, Scrope found time 

 to re^-isit his former haunts, and to prepare new and greatly improved 

 editions of his earlier works ; and these have been translated into the prin- 

 cipal European languages. During his declining years, which decapng 

 strength and increasing blindness compelled him to spend in almost com- 

 plete retirement, he followed with interest the progress of thought in 

 connexion with his favourite science, and watched vdth jealousy its 

 excentric development, contributing from time to time many a suggestive 

 essay or trenchant criticism to the scientific periodicals. 'Not a few 

 of the younger students of that branch of the science which he had him- 

 self so successfully cultivated were indebted to him, during these years 

 of increasing feebleness, when he could no longer take the field, not only 

 for counsel, sympathy, and encouragement, but for friendly aid in pursuing 

 their researches. But the death of Lyell, his early friend and fellow- 

 labourer, with whom to the last he maintained an affectionate corre- 

 spondence, produced a great shock to his weakened frame ; and within 

 a few months thereafter he passed peacefully away. 



