Life, Letters and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart, Volume 1J. Murray, 1881 - 489 pages |
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affectionate brother afterwards Airlie Castle Alps amused arrived Auvergne Babbage Bartley beautiful beds believe boys Buckland called carriage chalk CHARLES LYELL church cliffs collection conchology Cuvier delighted dined dinner Edinburgh English feel feet Fitton Forfarshire fossils France French gave Gefle Geological Society geologist geology GIDEON MANTELL give glacier glad grand half hear hills hope insects Ischia Isle Kinnordy ladies lake lectures LEONARD HORNER letter limestone London look Lord Malmö MANTELL marl Mer de Glace miles Mont morning mountains Murchison never night o'clock paper Paris passed Prévost Professor Pyrenees river rocks sand Scrope Sedgwick seen shells Sicily side species specimens splendid Stony Cross Sweden talk things thought tion to-day told took tour town travertin trees truly valley volcanic walk yesterday
Popular passages
Page 467 - 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 75 - Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains: They crowned him long ago, On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow.
Page 234 - ... no causes whatever have from the earliest time to which we can look back, to the present, ever acted, but those now acting ; and that they never acted with different degrees of energy from that which they now exert.
Page 468 - When I first came to the notion, which I never saw expressed elsewhere, though I have no doubt it had all been thought out before, of a succession of extinction of species, and creation of .new ones, going on perpetually now, and through an indefinite period of the past, and to continue for ages to come, all in accommodation to the changes which must continue in the inanimate and habitable earth, the idea struck me as the grandest which I had ever conceived, so far as regards the attributes of the...
Page 250 - ... which everything on that subject is systematically arranged, so that in the same work he often takes the round of many apartments. But the ordinary studio contains no book-shelves. It is a longish room, comfortably furnished, lighted from above, and furnished with eleven desks to stand to, and two low tables, like a public office for so many clerks. But all is for the one man, who multiplies himself as author, and admitting no one into this room, moves as he finds necessary, or as fancy inclines...
Page 234 - It will not pretend to give even an abstract of all that is known in geology, but it will endeavour to establish the principle of reasoning in the science ; and all my geology 'will come in as illustration of my views of those principles, and as evidence strengthening the system necessarily arising out of the admission of such principles...
Page 317 - that they considered some of my doctrines startling enough, but could not find that they were come by otherwise than in a straightforward manner, and (as I appeared to think) logically deducible from the facts, so that whether the facts were true or not, or my conclusions logical or otherwise, there was no reason to infer that I had made my theory from any hostile feeling towards revelation".
Page 249 - I should tell you that there is first the museum of natural history opposite his house, and admirably arranged by himself, then the anatomy museum connected with his dwelling. In the latter is a library disposed in a suite of rooms, each containing works on one subject. There is one where there are all the works on ornithology, in another room all on ichthyology, in another osteology, in another law books, etc.
Page 168 - His theories delighted me more than any novel I ever read, and much in the same way, for they address themselves to the imagination, at least of geologists who know the mighty inferences which would be deducible were they established by observations. But though I admire even his flights, and feel none of the odium...
Page 375 - ... won't be just ready, and he is growing older. He has not the application necessary to make his splendid abilities tell in a work. Besides, every one leads him astray. A man should have some severity of character, and be able to refuse invitations, etc. The fact is that to become great in science a man must be nearly as devoted as a lawyer, and must have more than mere talent1.