Charles Lyell and Modern GeologyMacmillan, 1895 - 224 pages |
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afforded afterwards Alabama River Alps America antiquity appeared Auvergne basalt beds British Association Carboniferous causes century chalk changes chap CHAPTER Charles Darwin Charles Lyell coal coalfield coast contained course crags craters crystalline Darwin deluge drifts early earth edition England epoch evidence examined excursion feet Forfarshire former fossils friends Geological Society geologists glacial glaciers gneiss granite halt Horner indicate inductive reasoning interesting island Journals journey Kinnordy labour Lady Lyell Lake land lava lectures Letters limestone London Lyell writes Madeira Martigny mass miles Milledgeville mind month mountains Murchison Nature neighbourhood origin of species present Principles of Geology Professor proved published question recognised regard remarks returned river rocks sand Saxon Switzerland says schists scientific Scotland sections Sedgwick sedimentary shells Sir Charles steamer strata summer Tertiary deposits tion tour town travelled valley volcanic volume
Popular passages
Page 114 - In regard to the origination of new species, I am very glad to find that you think it probable that it may be carried on through the intervention of intermediate causes. I left this rather to be inferred, not thinking it worth while to offend a certain class of persons by embodying in words what would only be a speculation.
Page 78 - There rolls the deep where grew the tree. O earth, what changes hast thou seen! There where the long street roars, hath been The stillness of the central sea. The hills are shadows, and they flow From form to form, and nothing stands ; They melt like mist, the solid lands, Like clouds they shape themselves and go. But in my spirit will I dwell, And dream my dream, and hold it true ; For tho' my lips may breathe adieu, I cannot think the thing farewell.
Page 165 - When speculations on the long series of events which occurred in the glacial and post-glacial periods are indulged in, the imagination is apt to take alarm at the immensity of the time required to interpret the monuments of these ages, all referable to the era of existing species. In order to abridge the number of : centuries which would otherwise be indispensable, a disposition is shown by many to magnify the rate of change in prehistoric times by investing the causes which have modified the animate...
Page 171 - But it would seem that four or five years' hard work had enabled me to understand what it meant ; for Lyell,* writing to Sir Charles Bunbury (under date of April 30, 1856), says :— " When Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston were at Darwin's last week they (all four of them) ran a tilt against species — further, I believe, than they are prepared to go.
Page 81 - ... henceforward, they who refused to subscribe to the position, that all marine organic remains were proofs of the Mosaic deluge, were exposed to the imputation of disbelieving the whole of the sacred writings. Scarcely any step had been made in approximating to sound theories since the time of Fracastoro, more than a hundred years having been lost, in writing down the dogma that organised fossils were mere sports of nature. An additional period of a century and a half was now destined to be consumed...
Page 185 - The more I reflected on the condition of the slaves, and endeavoured to think on a practicable plan for hastening the period of their liberation, the more difficult the subject appeared to me, and the more I felt astonished at the confidence displayed by so many anti-slavery speakers and writers on both sides of the Atlantic. The course pursued by these agitators shows that, next to the positively wicked, the class who are usually called " well-meaning persons " are the most mischievous in society.
Page 81 - The theologians who now entered the field in Italy, Germany, France and England, were innumerable ; and henceforward, they who refused to subscribe to the position, that all marine organic remains were proofs of the Mosaic deluge, were exposed to the imputation of disbelieving the whole of the sacred writings.
Page 122 - But I am convinced, although it is not the way I love to spend my own time, that in this country no importance is attached to any body of men who do not make occasional demonstrations of their strength in public meetings. It is a country where, as Tom Moore justly complained, a most exaggerated importance is attached to the faculty of thinking on your legs, and where, as Dan O'Connell well knows, nothing is to be got in the way of homage or influence, or even a fair share of power, without agitation...
Page 39 - Sedgwick and Murchison are just returned, the former full of magnificent views. Throws overboard all the diluvian hypothesis ; is vexed he ever lost time about such a complete humbug ; says he lost two years by having also started a Wernerian. He says primary rocks are not primary, but, as Button supposed, some igneous, some altered secondary.
Page 37 - Murchison and I fought stoutly, and Buckland was very piano. Conybeare's memoir is not strong by any means. He admits three deluges before the Noachian ! and Buckland adds God knows how many catastrophes besides ; so we have driven them out of the Mosaic record fairly.