Charles Lyell and Modern Geology

Lyell, no doubt, had exceptionally favourable opportunities. The eldest son of a wealthy man – who contentedly acquiesced in his seeking fame rather than fortune, and supplied him with the necessary funds – his time was his own, as he had not only enough for his ordinary wants, but also could afford to travel as much as he desired. His social position was sufficiently good to facilitate his access to those who had already attained to eminence. He was blessed with a sympathetic and helpful wife, and they had no children. Thus they were perfectly free, both in the disposal of their time at home and in their peregrinations abroad. Besides these things they both enjoyed good health. Lyell's constitution was not, indeed, so robust that he could take liberties; he had to be careful about "cakes and ale," and to lead a fairly regular life,174 but by so doing he was able to be always in good condition for his work. His eyes, in fact, were his only trouble and who is there who has not got his own "thorn in the flesh"? Lyell also was happy in all his domestic relations. His letters indicate that all the family – on both sides – were on affectionate terms, and contain few references to anxieties and troubles, such as the sickness and death of those dear to him, until his life approached the period when such trials become inevitable.

Thus free from the impediments which have beset many other men of marked ability, such as weak health and physical suffering, the wearing anxiety of an invalid wife or a sickly family, the harassing cares of pecuniary losses or of an insufficient income, Lyell had an exceptional chance. But other men have the same and do not use it; they are crippled by this burden or diverted by that allurement, and "might have been" too often becomes their epitaph. Lyell never faltered in the course which, comparatively early in life, he had marked out for himself. With that steady persistency and quiet energy which are characteristic of the Lowland Scot, he put aside all temptations and everything which threatened to interfere with his work. While neither recluse nor hermit, neither churlish nor unsociable, nay, while thoroughly enjoying witty and intellectual society, he allowed nothing to distract him from his main purpose. Convinced that there was a work which he could do, and a name which he could win, he was willing, for sake of this, to run risks and to make sacrifices. He did not indeed despise fame, but he never condescended to unworthy arts to obtain it; he held that the labourer was worthy of his hire, but with him it was always "the work first, and the wage second," whether that were coined gold or laurel wreath. He was singularly free from all petty jealousies, and ready to learn from all who could teach him anything, but he was no weakling, swayed by every breath of wind, for he reached his conclusions slowly and cautiously, and never stopped to ask whether they would be popular. "Forward, for truth's sake," that was the motto of his life.

In yet another way was Lyell felix opportunitate vitæ. In his days, geology might be compared to a country which had been for some time discovered but was not yet explored. Settlements had been established here and there; in their neighbourhood some ground had been cleared, and a firm base of operations had been secured, but around and beyond was the virgin forest, the untrodden land. At almost every step the traveller met with some fresh accession to his knowledge or a new problem to solve. He could feel the allurement of expectation or the joy of discovery even in countries otherwise well known; where now he can hope only to pick up some tiny detail or to plunge into some interminable controversy. If he now desires "fresh fields and pastures new," he must wander beyond the limits of civilised lands; for within these every crag is hammer-marked, and the official geologist is at work making maps. But not only this, Lyell lived in the days when the literature of his science was of very modest dimensions. This had its obvious drawbacks, but it had also its advantages, which, perhaps, were more than compensations. At the present day the conscientious student is in danger of being overwhelmed by the mass of papers, pamphlets and books, from all lands and in all languages – which he is expected, if not to read, at least to scramble through before venturing to write on any subject. Fifty years ago it required a very limited amount of study – often only a few hours' research – to put the geologist in possession of all that was known, so that he approached his theme very much as a mathematician attacks a problem. This burden of scientific literature, seeing that life is short and human strength is limited, threatens to stifle the progress of science itself, and we can hardly venture to expect that any more great generalisations will be made in geology or palæontology, unless a man arise who is daring enough to subordinate reading to thinking, and so strong in his grasp of principles that he can make light of details.

It has been sometimes said that Lyell was not an original thinker. Possibly not; vixere fortes ante Agamemnona is true in science no less than in national history; there were mathematicians before Newton, philosophic naturalists before Darwin, geologists before Lyell. He did not claim to have discovered the principle of uniformity. He tells us himself what had been done by his predecessors in Italy and in Scotland: but he scattered the mists of error and illusion, he placed the idea upon a firm and logical basis; in a word, he found uniformitarianism an hypothesis, and he left it a theory. That surely is a more solid gift to science, a better claim to greatness, than any number of brilliant guesses and fancies, which, after coruscating for a brief season to the amazement of a gaping crowd, explode into darkness, and are no more seen. But to a certain extent Lyell has thrown his own work into the shade. The fame of his books causes his numerous scientific papers175 to be overlooked; particularly his contributions to the history of coalfields and to the classification of the Tertiary deposits. Moreover, into these books he was constantly incorporating new and original matter. We may be fairly familiar with the "Principles" and the "Elements," but we fail to realise until we have read his "Life" and the accounts of his two tours in America how much those books are made up from the results of actual experience and personal study in the field.

It has been also said that Lyell carried the principle of "uniformity" a little too far. But, suppose we concede this, does it amount to more than the admission that he was human? It is almost inevitable that the discoverer or prophet of a great truth, who has to encounter the storm and stress of controversy, should state his case a little too strongly, or should overlook some minor limitation. Suppose we grant that Lyell was a little too lavish in his estimate of the time at the disposal of geologists. The physicist had not then intervened, with arguments drawn from his own science, to insist that neither earth nor sun can reckon their years by myriads of myriads, and even now this controversy cannot be regarded as closed. Suppose we grant that in accepting Hutton's dictum, "I find in the earth no signs of a beginning," Lyell was misled by appearances,176 which have since proved to be delusive, and that facts, so far as they go, point rather in the contrary direction. Well, this point also is not yet to be regarded as settled; and of one thing, at any rate, we may be sure, that if Lyell were now living he would frankly recognise new facts, as soon as they were established, and would not shrink from any modification of his theory which these might demand. Great as were his services to geology, this, perhaps, is even greater – for the lesson applies to all sciences and to all seekers after knowledge – that his career, from first to last, was the manifestation of a judicial mind, of a noble spirit, raised far above all party passions and petty considerations, of an intellect great in itself, but greater still in its grand humility; that he was a man to whom truth was as the 'pearl of price,' worthy of the devotion and, if need be, the sacrifice of a life.

1

Born 1767, died 1849 (also son of a Charles Lyell); educated at St. Andrew's and at St. Peter's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded to the degree of B.A. in 1791 and M.A. in 1794.

2

In 1835, the Canzoniere, including the Vita Nuova and Convito; a second edition was published in 1842; in 1845 a translation of the Lyrical Poems of Dante.

3

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 3.

4

Probably they were fossil sponges.

5

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 43.

6

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 69.

7

Now generally called Parnassius Apollo; but very likely he captured more than one species of the genus.

8

Probably it was a bituminous shale which had become ignited, as was the case at Ringstead Bay, Dorset, with the Kimeridge clay. The same often happens with the "banks" of coal-pits.

9

Now recognised as gault. The identification named above was soon found to be correct.

10

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 127. Some sentences (for the sake of brevity) are omitted from the quotation.

11

He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1826.

12

It appeared in the Edin. Journ. Sci., iii. (1825) p. 112, being his first actual publication. Its importance consisted in proving that serpentine was, or rather had been, an igneous rock. If proper attention had been paid to it, fewer mistaken statements and hypotheses would have attained the dignity of appearing in print.

13

Dr. Gideon A. Mantell, a surgeon by profession, at that time resident in Lewes, who made valuable contributions to the geology of South-East England, and was also distinguished for his popular lectures and books. He died in 1852.

14

Probably referring to an article on Scrope's "Geology of Central France," in which he shows that he fully accepted the Huttonian doctrine of interpreting the geology of past ages by reference to the causes still at work. It appeared in the Quarterly Review, Oct. 1827, vol. xxxvi. p. 437.

15

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 169.

16

Dr. John MacCulloch, author (among other works) of the "Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland." He was an excellent geologist on the mineralogical side, but had little sympathy with palæontology or with the views to which Lyell inclined. He died in 1835.

17

This district had been already explored by Mr. G. P. Scrope, the first edition of whose classic work, "The Volcanoes of Central France," was published in 1826.

18

Sir John F. W. Herschel, the second of the illustrious astronomers of that name.

19

Sir W. J. Hooker.

20

Certain passages in a letter of Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of Clermont, dated about 460 A.D., and in the works of Alcimus Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne, about half a century later, have been interpreted as referring to volcanic eruptions somewhere in Auvergne. This, however, is disputed by many authorities. (See Geological Magazine, 1865, p. 241.)

21

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 199.

22

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 238.

23

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 215.

24

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 252.

25

Ibid.

26

Ut suprà, p. 253.

27

"Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, or Observations on Organic Remains contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel, and on other Geological Phenomena attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge." By Professor Buckland. 1823.

28

Ut suprà, p. 254.

29

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 255.

30

Ut suprà, p. 256.

31

Further work has not verified some of these statements. There can be no question that a great deal of rock in the Alps is much older than even the Trias. The apparent superposition of crystalline schists to rocks with fossils is due to over-folding or over-thrust faulting —i. e. the schists are the older rocks. Though the Secondary rocks of the Alps have undergone, in places, some modification and mineral changes, these are very different from the metamorphism of those crystalline schists which have a stratified origin.

32

Now "University College," London, having been incorporated by Royal Charter under that title in November, 1836.

33

Ut suprà, p. 258.

34

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. pp. 269-271.

35

When he left the publisher had not decided whether it should be issued at once or kept back till October.

36

D'Aubuisson, as time has shown, foresaw a real danger. The neglect of, if not contempt for, mineralogy, which became conspicuous between the years 1840 and 1870, or thereabouts, seriously impeded the progress of geology, at any rate in England.

37

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 276.

38

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 283.

39

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 296.

40

Subsequent experience has shown that, while the above observations are beyond all question in the case of ordinary sedimentary rocks, structures curiously resembling lamination and ripple-mark may be produced in certain gneisses and crystalline schists by other causes. Still, in many schists, they have originated in the way suggested by Lyell, and indicate that the rock formerly was deposited by water.

41

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 303.

42

Ut suprà, p. 305.

43

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 313.

44

The Rev. W. D. Conybeare, afterwards Dean of Llandaff, an eminent geologist, rather senior to Lyell.

45

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 316.

46

It was formerly conceded by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin that a Master of Arts in any one could assume, under certain conditions, the same position in the others. This carried with it some privileges, though not the suffrage and the full rights of the degree. Lyell had proceeded to the degree of M.A. at Oxford in 1821.

47

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 318.

48

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 328.

49

Ut suprà, p. 329. By the end of October it had not only ceased to grow, but also had been nearly washed away by the sea. Now its position is marked by a shoal.

50

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 331.

51

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 342.

52

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 347.

53

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 358.

54

Lyell resigned the Professorship after he had finished the course.

55

Strictly speaking, fifteen out of the last sixteen chapters, for the final one (dealing with coral reefs) is substantially a reprint.

56

"Principles of Geology," vol. i. p. 26 (eleventh edition).

57

In Memoriam, cxxiii.

58

"Principles of Geology," chap. iii. p. 37.

59

"Principles of Geology," chap. iv.

60

"Principles of Geology," chap. iv.

61

Hutton's "Theory of the Earth" was first published in 1788, and in an enlarged form in 1795. Playfair's "Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory" appeared in the spring of 1802.

62

Geikie's "Life of Murchison," chap. vii.

63

"Principles of Geology," chap. iv.

64

"Principles of Geology," chap. iv.

65

Abridged from Lyell's summary: "Principles of Geology," chap. vii.

66

At King's College and at the Royal Institution. See pp. 71, 72.

67

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 401.

68

Huxley, "Man's Place in Nature," p. 121.

69

Only the skull was found, and that imperfect; moreover, the missing part could not be discovered. The same is true of the other animal remains, so that they could hardly have been victims of the Deluge.

70

"Man's Place in Nature," p. 156.

71

Turbo littoreus, Mytilus edulis, Cardium edule.

72

The term, of course, is used here in the sense of either a slaty rock or a hard shale.

73

The ruins of which (in the Bay of Baiæ) gradually sank after the middle of the fifth century until (probably towards the end of the fifteenth century) the floor was more than twenty feet under water. Since then it has risen up again. – "Principles of Geology," chap. xxx.

74

He had expressed his doubts, in this and the former editions, as to the validity of the proofs of a gradual rise of land in Sweden.

75

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 436.

76

Lyell's specimens appear to have come from Kured, two miles north of Uddevalla, and only one hundred feet above the sea, but barnacles were obtained by Brongniart at two hundred feet. – "Principles of Geology," chap. xxxi.

77

"Antiquity of Man," chap. iii.

78

"Principles of Geology," ch. xxxi. "Antiquity of Man," ch. iii.

79

"On the Structure of Large Mineral Masses," etc. Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond., iii. p. 461.

80

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 460.

81

The weakness of his eyes was always more or less of a trouble.

82

It is "past" in the text (Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 468), but I think this an obvious misprint.

83

"Life of Charles Darwin," vol. i. p. 273.

84

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 475.

85

It is but rarely that, so far as the writer has seen, this remark applies to the committees of scientific societies in London, but the amount of time thus wasted in the universities, judging from his own experience of one of them, is really melancholy.

86

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. ii. p. 22.

87

Ibid., vol. ii. p. 20.

88

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. ii. p. 45.

89

Though undoubtedly this severance of geology and cosmogony was very helpful at the time to the progress of the former, the justice of it may be questioned; and Lyell's approval would not be endorsed by every geologist at the present day, though probably it would still commend itself to the majority.

90

While this is true of many of the so-called primitive rocks, it is now generally believed that no inconsiderable portion are really abnormal or modified igneous rocks.

91

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. ii. p. 48.

92

The Very Reverend W. Cockburn, D.D., who testified against the Association in a pamphlet entitled "The Dangers of Peripatetic Philosophy" (published in 1838). When the Association met at York in 1844, he read a paper before the Geological Section, criticising that science, and propounding a cosmogonical theory of his own. He was severely handled by Professor Sedgwick, but published his paper under the title, "The Bible defended against the British Association." This, though an exceptionally silly production, had a large sale. ("Life and Letters of Sedgwick," vol. ii. p. 76.)

93

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. ii. p. 51.

94

Held at Glasgow, beginning September 17th. An allusion, however, during his American journey seems to imply a visit to France this year.

95

"Travels in North America," chap. i.

96

"Travels in North America," chap. ii.

97

See the plate in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1751.

98

See map in "Man and the Glacial Period," by Dr. G. F. Wright (International Scientific Series), p. 338.

99

The estimates made by geologists have varied from 55,000 years (Ellicott, in 1790) to not more than 7,000 years (United States Geological Survey, 1886). Professor J. W. Spencer, who has recently investigated the question, has arrived, by a different method, at a date practically identical with that assigned by Lyell (Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. lvi. (1894), p. 145).

100

This was still a moot point with geologists. Lyell refers to the confirmatory evidence which W. Logan had recently obtained in the South Wales coalfield of Britain.

101

"Principles of Geology," chap. xliv.

102

Proc. Roy. Soc. lvi. (1894), p. 146.

103

The lake-ridges and raised beaches around the Great Lakes, indicating margins of the water when it stood at a higher level than now, have received much attention of late years from Canadian and American geologists. They are found to vary somewhat in level, thus indicating unequal movements of the earth's crust. References to literature prior to 1890 will be found in a paper by Professor J. W. Spencer, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. xlvi. (1890), p. 523.

104

See, for descriptions of these sections and lists of the fossils, Sir W. Dawson's "The Ice Age in Canada," chaps. vi. and vii. They occur up to 560 feet above the sea.

105

Chapters xiv. and xxix.

106

"The Girvan Succession," Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., xxxviii. (1882), p. 537.

107

The capelin (Mallotus villosus), which still lives in the Atlantic.

108

It was also seen the following year on the coast of Virginia, and on that of Norway in both 1845 and 1846.

109

He says that the alleged sea-serpent washed ashore at Stronsa (Orkneys) in 1808 is proved by the bones (some of which are preserved) to have been this animal.