THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. JANUARY, 1867. I. SIR CHARLES LYELL AND MODERN GEOLOGY. Or late years the attention of a large number of geologists has been directed to an examination of the nature and potency of the causes of change now operating on the surface of the earth. This course of observation was first firmly trodden by Sir Charles Lyell; and now that we are reposing for a time after a series of controversies on subaerial forces, it may be useful to give a sketch of the services which have been rendered to science by the philosopher who, thirty-six years ago, founded the now dominant school of Geology. In 1830 Sir Charles Lyell published the first volume of the first edition of the Principles of Geology.' As stated on the title-page, it was "an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth's surface by reference to causes now in action." This great work at once established Sir Charles Lyell's reputation as a philosophical geologist of the highest order; more than that, it produced the Uniformitarian' school of geology, to which belong nearly the whole of the distinguished geologists of the present day, who at that time were but students of the science. Mr. Darwin expects that the younger zoologists will hereafter confirm his theory of Natural Selection; but Sir Charles Lyell can say that the younger geologists of thirty years ago have done this for the doctrine of Uniformity. In fact, soon after its publication, Lyell's 'Principles became a household book; and although much that it contained met with opposition from some of the leading geologists of the day, that did not prevent the great body of their successors from accepting it as their guide and text-book in geological reasoning. The Royal Society also "crowned" the work by awarding a Royal Medal to its author the year after its completion (1834). To future generations of geologists, Sir Charles Lyell's reputation will chiefly depend upon their estimate of the effect produced on the scientific world by the publication of the first edition of the Principles.' Even at this distance of time it is difficult to · VOL. IV. B form a correct and impartial estimate of what geology would have been had the Principles' never been published. The chief design of the work was to uphold and strengthen the Huttonian doctrine of uniformity in the causes which have operated, and the phenomena which have been produced, throughout all geological time. The antagonistic doctrine of cataclysms was dominant, if not universally received, at the time of its publication, and is even now not quite extinct amongst some of the older geologists; although it is altogether ignored by those to whom in early days the Principles' has been a geological catechism. Still, the chief geologists of that day united in bearing testimony to the great value of the book, and it may be useful to quote a few of the opinions then expressed by men whose writings are still referred to with respect. Dr. Whewell, in his History of the Inductive Sciences,' frequently discusses the 'Principles,' and in reference to causes of change he remarks that it may "be looked upon as the beginning of Geological Dynamics, at least among us. Such generalizations and applications as it contains give the most lively interest to a thousand observations respecting rivers and floods, mountains and morasses, which otherwise appear without aim or meaning." The Rev. W. D. Conybeare, in his report on Geology to the second meeting of the British Association, says that it is "in itself sufficiently important to mark almost a new era in the progress of our science;" and Dr. Fitton considered it one of the most popular books, "and certainly one of the most valuable that has appeared since Mr. Playfair's well-known Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory."‡ Perhaps the most graceful allusion to the merits of the Principles' is contained in Mr. Poullett Scrope's dedication to Sir Charles Lyell of the second edition of his work on Volcanoes, published in 1862. This distinguished geologist then wrote, "When the first edition of this work [Volcanoes] saw the light, now seven-and thirty years ago, you expressed a warmer interest in, and more agreement with, the views it contained than they met with from the bulk of our associates. It was an attempt to investigate one important class of the agencies of change now in operation on the earth's surface, and to trace their analogy, or rather identity, with those which have apparently prevailed through earlier geological periods-a portion, in fact, of the great task at which you have so long laboured, as respects the entire range of terrestrial phenomena, with an originality, persistence, and success that have placed you by common consent at the head of the followers of the science." This dedication was written only four years ago, and is on that account more valuable, as showing the estimation in *Op. cit., vol. iii., p. 552. Rep. Brit. Assoc.,' 1832, p. 406. Edinburgh Review,' vol. lxix., No. 140, p. 406. 1839. |