From The Quarterly Review. ence on the progress of geological science, and for the last twenty-five years of his life he was the most prominent geologist in the world, equally eminent for the extent of his labors and the breadth of his philosophical views." He may be considered as holding much the same place in the history of geology that Charles Darwin has more recently assumed in that of biology, as the acknowledged leader of the science, who has marked out for the future the lines from which it is never likely to deviate, and on which alone true progress can be made. In neither case were their views strictly original. THE life of a man of science can rarely or never present the same stirring interest or variety, as that of a man engaged in an active profession or who has taken a prominent part in public life. His life is to be found in his works, and his biography, if it is to be much more than a catalogue raisonné of these, must depend upon assuming something of an autobiographical interest from being based upon the journals or letters of its subject. In this respect Mrs. Lyell has been fortunate in finding ample materials ready to her hand. Sir Charles Lyell maintained through life | The doctrine of the transmutation of spean extensive correspondence, which was not confined to scientific subjects, but extended over a wide range of topics, while he possessed in no ordinary degree the gift of a fluent and agreeable letter-writer. On several occasions also he kept for a time a regular journal, especially during some of his many tours on the continent of Europe, in which he recorded his observations on men and things, as well as on geological facts. All these journals, as well as those of his letters that are not of a purely scientific character, are marked by a racy spirit and liveliness of observation, ever ready to seize on whatever was of real interest, combined with a sense of humor not often to be found in his countrymen. The great value of Mrs. Lyell's biography must of course consist in the light it throws upon the career of her brother-in-law as a man of science, but the non-scientific reader also will find in it much to interest and amuse him; and those whose memory goes back to the elder generation to which Lyell himself belonged will meet with many reminiscences of the past, recalled in a lively and agreeable manner. Sir Charles Lyell's position as a geologist has long been securely established. In the words of one who was very competent to judge, written immediately after his death: "For upwards of half a century he exercised a most important influ Life, Letters and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., Author of "Principles of Geology," etc. Edited by his Sister-in-Law, Mrs. Lyell. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1881. cies had been put forward by Lamarck, many years before it was taken up by Darwin: and the theory that the operation of such causes as we now witness in action would suffice, if only time enough were allowed, to account for all geological changes, had been first advanced by Hutton before the close of the last century, and supported with much ability by Playfair a few years later.* But the contrary opinion generally prevailed both in this country and on the Continent, until the subject was taken up by Lyell, who, "with rare sagacity and great eloquence, with a wealth of illustration and most powerful reasoning," † established the truth of the long-neglected theory in a position that can hardly be shaken. The only danger is that the younger generations of geologists, who have been trained up to regard Lyell's views as the orthodox and established faith, may be apt to forget how long and hard a struggle it cost to procure their recognition, and how much energy and perseverance were required before their author, while still a young man, could break through the formidable array of authorities opposed to him, which comprised at first all the leading geologists of Europe. It is here that Mrs. Lyell's book comes in most opportunely, and enables those who have no personal recollections of the earlier Hutton's "Theory of the Earth" was published in 1795: Playfair's "Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory" in 1802. ↑ Sir John Lubbock, "Address to the British Asso ciation," Sept. 1881. days of geology to realize, to a degree | contain is the record of his early devotion that would not otherwise be possible, the to natural history. Entomology was in struggles and difficulties which none but those who remember them can fully appreciate. Charles Lyell was born on the 14th of November, 1797, at Kinnordy, in Forfarshire, an estate which had been for some time in his family. His father, who bore the same name, was not only a man of cultivation and refinement far beyond what was usually to be found in a Scotch laird of moderate fortune, but he had devoted himself to both literary and scientific pursuits with energy and success. In early life he had principally directed his attention to botany, especially to the more obscure portions of the study relating to the cryptogamous plants, which he pursued with such success as to render his name familiar to Humboldt and other savans, whom his son subsequently met at Paris. At one time he appears to have occupied himself almost as zealously with entomology; but this was but a short-lived taste. During the latter part of his life he was engaged principally in studies of a very different character, having been led to take so great an interest in Dante, that he not only devoted a large portion of his time to the study of the great Florentine poet, but published several works upon the subject, including translations of the minor poems contained in the "Vita Nuova" and the "Convito," which are in general but little familiar to the English reader. The influence which his highly cultivated mind, and enlarged interest in a variety of subjects, exercised over his son in early life, is clearly to be seen in the letters addressed by the young man to his father, which form a large portion of the first volume. In common with many other men of eminence, whose lives have been of late years given to the public, the account of his earliest days is supplied by a fragment of an autobiography, which was written for the information of his wife, after he was first engaged to her. It does not, however, extend even to the end of his school-days, and though these early reminiscences are related with spirit and humor, the only real point of interest they the first instance the special object of his attention, and though he himself owns, as might have been expected, that at this period mere acquisitiveness — the desire of forming a collection and adding to the number of his specimens · had more influence than any love of scientific knowledge, it is evident that this pursuit, ridiculed as it naturally was by his schoolfellows, but encouraged and kept alive by his father and other relations during the holidays, contributed to nourish in him that turn for scientific observation which afterwards found so much wider a field for its exercise. A more questionable form of collection-in which, however, he had the full sympathy of his schoolfellows - was that of birds' eggs, including those of pheasants and partridges from the adjoining manors, which frequently afforded them materials for a substantial breakfast: their enjoyment of the unusual treat being greatly heightened by a vague notion that, if detected, they were liable to be transported to Botany Bay for this kind of poaching"! (Vol. i., p. 31). Though he was born in Scotland, Lyell's education was entirely English. He was yet an infant when his father hired a place called Bartley Lodge, in the New Forest, where he continued to reside for twentyeight years. The boy's earliest associations were thus connected with the beau tiful scenery of that neighborhood, and the first school to which he was sent, at a very early age, was at Ringwood, a few miles from his home. From thence he was transferred to a school at Salisbury, and thence again, when about twelve years old, to one at Midhurst, where he appears to have imbibed about as much Latin and Greek as boys usually carry away from a public school. At the age of seventeen he was entered at Exeter College, Oxford, and went through the regular university course; but he does not appear to have applied himself with much zeal to the pursuits of the place, though he ultimately obtained a second class in classics. Those who knew him only in after life, will be more surprised to learn that he was a candi date, though an unsuccessful one, for the | instead of being whirled at railway speed prize for English poetry. from one end to another, without seeing or learning anything.. But if his residence at Oxford was not remarkable for his proficiency in the studies of the university, in another respect it undoubtedly influenced his whole subsequent career. For it was there that he first directed his attention to geology, having attended a course of Dr. Buckland's lectures, who was at that time at the height of his popularity. According to Mrs. Lyell, it was Bakewell's "Geology" - at that time a well-known, popular introduction to the subject, which he found in his father's library that first excited his interest in what was to him a wholly new science, and led him to seek the opportunity of pursuing its study under the guidance of Dr. Buckland, whose animated and vigorous mode of treating his subject was well calculated to seize on the imagination of a youth like Charles Lyell. After taking his degree at Oxford in 1819, the young student was entered at Lincoln's Inn, and for a time devoted himself to the study of the law in a special pleader's office. But the weakness of his eyes, a disadvantage with which he had to struggle throughout his life, soon compelled him to desist from the pursuit of this laborious profession; and though, after a period of rest, he was able to resume his legal studies, so as to be called to the bar in 1825, and even went the western circuit for two years, his increasing devotion to geology made it abundantly manifest that his vocation was for science, and not for the law. As early as 1819 he had become a member of the Geological Society, then a body of very limited extent, but comprising a number of men full of zeal, talents, and energy: in From this moment he became a geolo- 1823 he became secretary of that society, gist, and though, of course, he could not and in the same year contributed his first devote himself wholly to his favorite pur- paper to their transactions. This, as well suit, we find him, while still at Oxford, as one published by him in 1825, in taking the opportunity of a visit to Mr. Brewster's Edinburgh Journal of SciDawson Turner at Yarmouth, to investi- ence, related to the geological formation gate the mode of formation of that singu- of his native county of Forfarshire: and lar port and the estuary of the Yare, and throughout his letters it is interesting to arriving at conclusions undoubtedly cor- observe how continually he refers to the rect, though opposed to the obvious infer- geological phenomena in the immediate ence from present appearances, and com- vicinity of his home, which he had thorbatted as erroneous by his intelligent and oughly investigated at this early period. highly cultivated host. In a short tour Prominent among these were the depos with his father, in the same year, we find its of shell marl, found in certain small him carefully noting all the geological lakes in Forfarshire, which afforded him peculiarities he met with on his way; a clue to the formation of the far more while an excursion with some friends to extensive fresh-water deposits that in Staffa and Iona gave him the opportunity some countries occupy a large portion of of seeing some of the most interesting the surface. It was fortunate for him objects, in a geological point of view, to also that during this period of his life his be met with in the British Islands. The father continued to reside principally at next year (1818) he travelled with his the house which he had taken in the New father and other members of his family Forest, a position which brought him into through France, Switzerland, and Italy, the immediate proximity of the interestand the extracts given from his journal of ing tertiary deposits of the coast of Hamp. this tour are characterized by that fresh-shire and the Isle of Wight; and thus ness of impression and variety of obser- drew his attention to that branch of geolvotion which he retained through life, and ogy on which, above all others, he has for which such a journey afforded ample left his mark. scope in those days, when people really travelled in the countries that they visited, In 1826 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in the following year he contributed to this journal an article on Scrope's "Geology of Central France," which attracted general attention, and afforded the first evidence of the remarkable power he possessed of giving a popular form to his scientific views; a power which undoubtedly contributed in no small degree to the influence exercised by his writings over the general public as well as the scientific world. but when he betrayed the weakness of coveting ribbons, crosses, titles, and court favor, he fell down to the lowest among his new competitors." (Vol. i., pp. 126–7). A striking picture was given at the same time by the great Prussian savant whose unrivalled powers of conversation made the same impression upon the young English geologist that they did upon all who were fortunate enough to of the state of French come in his way society in general at this time. Meantime his name was beginning to become generally known as that of a rising young geologist; and when he visited Paris in 1823, he was received with open arms by Humboldt, Cuvier, Brongniart, and other savans, and found himself at once admitted to all the scientific society of the French capital. But while he profited to the utmost by the opportunities thus afforded him, he was keenly "You cannot conceive how striking and ludialive to the other objects of interest that crous a feature it is in Parisian society at prespresented themselves, and his letters to ent, that every other man one meets is either his father give a lively picture of the state minister or ex-minister. So frequent have of political feeling at Paris, where the re-been the changes. They are scattered as thick action that followed the restoration of the Bourbons was in full force, and the clerical party was continually increasing in power and influence. The Duke of Angoulême was the hero of the hour, and the expedition into Spain, in which hardly a shot was fired, was regarded as an important advantage to the Bourbons, as tending to secure the attachment of the army! Talking of the unusually wet weather at Paris, a lady observed to Lyell, "There is a revolution in the heavens; and the Duc d'Angoulême should be sent to quell it, for in truth he is too good for us here." The men of science in general naturally took a more liberal view, and regarded the ultra-clerical movement with aversion and contempt. But there was unfortunately one exception, and that the most illustrious of all, Cuvier. Humboldt, who viewed the matter with more impartial eyes as a stranger, though half a Frenchman from habit and association, remarked of him: as the leaves in autumn, stratum above stra- on the last are sure soon to fall those which At last the In 1828 he set out on a tour to Auvergne "No, Cuvier gives no lectures, and the reason I regret to say is, that he is still a Politi-and the north of Italy, in company with cian. No, you were mistaken, if you imagined that the ministry have reached a pitch of ultraism beyond him, and sent him back to his books. That time is yet to come. You observe that his soirées are mostly attended by English; the truth is, the French savans have in general cut him; his continual changing over to each new party that came into power at length disgusted almost all, and you know that it has been long a charge against men of science, that they were pliant tools in the *Quarterly Review, vol. xxxvi. Mr. (afterwards Sir Roderick) Murchison " but it He was not, however, so much engrossed with his scientific pursuits, as not to be fully alive to the natural beauties of the country through which they led him, and in one of his letters to his sisters he gives an animated description of one of the most beautiful districts in Francethe Vivarais-still, we believe, almost entirely unknown to all English travellers who are not geologists. others afforded the true key to his system, i still remained much to be done in the that he was able to establish his theory way of observation, as well as of interpreupon a base that could not be shaken, and tation. It was reserved for the English that continually acquired increasing con- visitors, among other things, to point out firmation from all his subsequent re- the connection between the volcanic researches. It was undoubtedly also for- mains, which form so striking a feature tunate for him, that the greater part of of the whole country, and the extensive this tour was made in company with a fresh-water formation which covers large brother geologist, who, though far inferior portions of the adjoining plains and valto him in original power and that kind of leys. Here Lyell especially found himimagination which can alone lead to great self quite at home, and he dwells with discoveries in science, was possessed of great interest upon the perfect corresponunrivalled powers of observation, and an dence of these deposits, demonstrably of amount of energy and activity in the pur- an older date than all the volcanoes of suit of his objects, which did not yield to the country, with the beds "which are at that of Lyell himself. Even his compan- our own door in the marl loch" near Kinion was obliged to admit that Murchison nordy. had" a little too much of what Mathews used to ridicule in his slang as 'the keep moving, go-it-if-it-kills-you" system, and to fight sometimes, for the sake of geology, as his wife had for her strength, to make him proceed with somewhat less precipitation." When on one occasion his overtasked strength broke down, and he was for a time unable to take the field again, the two brother geologists occupied themselves in composing a joint paper on Equally graphic and amusing are his the excavation of valleys, which, as sketches of his travelling experiences in Charles Lyell jocosely informs his sister, Sicily, where he encountered almost all "is intended to reform the Geological kinds of difficulties and désagrémens Society, and afterwards the world, on which could well be met with, except what this hitherto-not-in-the-least-degree-under- his friends seem most to have apprestood subject." The boast, though uttered in jest, was no idle one. The views of the "fluvialists". as the advocates of the new theory were called in derision by their adversaries, who adhered to the old idea (stoutly advocated by Buckland as well as by Conybeare and Greenough) that existing valleys were scooped out at once by a mighty rush of waters causing a gigantic, if not universal deluge-were vigorously combatted on their first announcement in the Geological Society, and on many subsequent occasions; but the new view gradually met with a tacit acquiescence, and ultimately came to be regarded as beyond the reach of controversy. The geological phenomena of Auvergne were already in a certain sense well known to the scientific world, and had recently been made the subject of an elaborate investigation by Mr. Poulett Scrope, which may be considered as having given the coup de grace to the long dominant Wernerian theory. Nevertheless, there See the preface to the second edition of his work on the "Geology and Extinct Volcanos of Central France," 8vo., 1858, in which he is able to boast with justice that the "Wernerian notion of the aqueous pre hended - banditti, of whom he neither saw nor heard anything in any part of the island he visited-about two-thirds of the whole. We can answer for the same having been the case a few years afterwards (in 1836), and we believe that, bad as the Bourbon government of the island was, it kept down this greatest of all pests to the security of life and property, far more effectually than has been accomplished since its overthrow. In a geological point of view, his visit to Sicily was even more instructive than that to Auvergne, not only from the opportunities it afforded him for observing the operations of recent volcanic action, which could at the same time be traced back through a continuous series from a very remote period, but from the ample proofs of the extremely recent date (geologically speaking) of the extensive tertiary formations which constitute a large portion of that great island. It was undoubtedly to the observations made on this occasion that we owe the first conception of those general views, in regard cipitation of 'trap' has since that date (the publica tion of his first edition in 1826) never held up its head." |