THE REVOLT OF SCROPE AND LYELL AGAINST CATASTROPHISM
The year 1797, in which the illustrious Hutton died, leaving behind him
the noble fragments of a monumental work, was signalised by the birth of
two men, who were destined to bring about the overthrow of
Catastrophism, and to establish, upon the firm foundation of reasoned
observation, the despised doctrine of Uniformitarianism or Evolution--as
outlined by Generelli, Desmarest and Hutton. These two men were George
Poulett Thomson (who afterwards took the name of Scrope) and Charles
Lyell. Both of them were, from their youth upwards, brought under the
strongest influences of the prevalent anti-evolutionary teachings; but
both emancipated themselves from the effects of these teachings, being
led gradually by their geological travels and observations, not only to
reject their early faith, but to become the champions of Evolution.
There was a singular parallel between the early careers of these two
men. Both were the sons of parents of ample means, and were thus freed
from the distractions of a business or profession, while throughout life
they alike remained exempt from family cares. Each of them received the
ordinary education of the English upper classes--Scrope at Harrow, and
Lyell at Salisbury, in a school conducted by a Winchester master on
public-school lines. In due course, the two young men proceeded to the
University--Scrope to Cambridge, to come under the influence of the
sagacious and eloquent Sedgwick, and Lyell to Oxford, to catch
inspiration from the enthusiastic but eccentric Buckland. On the opening
up of the continent, by the termination of the French wars, each of the
young men accompanied his family in a carriage-tour (as was the fashion
of the time) through France, Switzerland and Italy; and both utilised
the opportunities thus afforded them, to make long walking excursions
for geological study. They both returned again and again to the
continent for the purpose of geological research, and in the year 1825,
at the age of 28, found themselves associated as joint-secretaries of
the Geological Society. By this time they had arrived at similar
convictions concerning the causes of geological phenomena--convictions
which were in direct opposition to the views of their early teachers,
and equally obnoxious to all the leaders of geological thought in the
infant society which they had joined.
[Illustration: G Poulett Scrope]
It is interesting to note that each of these two young geologists
arrived independently, _as the result of their own studies and
observations_, at their conclusions concerning the futility of the
prevailing catastrophic doctrines. This I am able to affirm, not only
from their published and unpublished letters, but from frequent
conversations I had with them in their later years.
Scrope, who was slightly the elder of the two friends, spent a
considerable time in that wonderful district of France--the Auvergne--in
the year 1821, and though he had not seen the map and later memoirs of
Desmarest, he pourtrayed the structure of the country in a series of
very striking panoramic views, and was led, independently of the great
French observer, to the same conclusions as his concerning the volcanic
origin of the basalts and the formation of the valleys by river-action.
Scrope was at that time equally ignorant of the views propounded both by
Generelli and by Hutton.
By April 6th, 1822, Scrope had completed his masterly work _The Geology
and Extinct Volcanoes of Central France_, and had despatched it to
England. It would be idle to speculate now as to what might have been
the effect of that work--so full of the results of accurate observation,
and so suggestive in its reasoning--had it been published at that time.
It is quite possible that much of the credit now justly assigned to
Lyell, would have belonged to his friend. Unfortunately, however,
Scrope, instead of seeing his work through the press, determined first
to make another tour in Italy. He arrived at Naples just in time to
witness and describe the grandest eruption of Vesuvius in modern times,
that of October 1822. What he witnessed then--the blowing away of the
whole upper part of the mountain and the formation of a vast crater 1000
feet deep--made a profound impression on Scrope's mind. His interest
thus strongly aroused concerning igneous phenomena, Scrope continued his
travels and observations on the volcanic rocks of the peninsula of Italy
and its islands, and was thus led to a number of important conclusions
in theoretical geology, which he embodied in a work, published in 1825,
entitled _Considerations on Volcanos: the probable causes of their
phenomena, the laws which determine their march, the disposition of
their products, and their connexion with the present state and past
history of the globe; leading to the establishment of a New Theory of
the Earth_.
It is only right to point out that, in calling this book a _new_ 'Theory
of the Earth,' Scrope had no intention of comparing it with Hutton's
great work, with which he was at that time altogether unacquainted.
Nevertheless, his conclusions, though independently arrived at, were
almost identical with those of the great Scotch philosopher. But Scrope
made the same mistake as Hutton had done before him. He allowed his
theoretical conclusions to precede, instead of following upon an account
of the observations on which they were based. Scrope's book is certainly
one of the most original and suggestive contributions ever made to
geological science; but the very speculative character of a large
portion of the work led to the neglect of the really valuable hypotheses
and acute observations which it contained. In the preface, however, the
author gives a most striking and complete summary of the doctrine of
Evolution as opposed to Catastrophism, in the inorganic world, as will
be shown by the following extracts:--
Geology has for its business a knowledge of the processes which
are in continual or occasional operation within the limits of
our planet, and the application of these laws to explain the
appearances discovered by our Geognostical researches, so as
from these materials to deduce conclusions as to the past
history of the globe.
The surface of the globe exposes to the eye of the Geognost
abundant evidence of a variety of changes which appear to have
succeeded one another during an incalculable lapse of time.
These changes are chiefly,
I. Variations of level between different constituent parts of
the solid surface of the globe.
II. The destruction of former rocks, and their reproduction
under another form.
III. The production of rocks _de novo_ upon the earth's surface.
Geologists have usually had recourse for the explanation of
these changes to the supposition of sundry violent and
extraordinary catastrophes, cataclysms, or general revolutions
having occurred in the physical state of the earth's surface.
As the idea imparted by the term Cataclysm, Catastrophe, or
Revolution, is extremely vague, and may comprehend any thing you
choose to imagine, it answers for the time very well as an
explanation; that is, it stops further inquiry. But it has also
the disadvantage of effectually stopping the advance of science,
by involving it in obscurity and confusion.
If, however, in lieu of forming guesses as to what may have been
the possible causes and nature of these changes, we pursue that,
which I conceive the only legitimate path of geological inquiry,
and begin by examining the laws of nature which are actually in
force, we cannot but perceive that numerous physical phenomena
are going on at this moment on the surface of the globe, by
which various changes are produced in its constitution and
external characters; changes extremely analogous to those of
earlier date, whose nature is the main object of geological
inquiry.
These processes are principally,
I. The Atmospheric phenomena.
II. The laws of the circulation and residence of Water on the
exterior of the globe.
III. The action of Volcanos and Earthquakes.
The changes effected before our eyes, by the operation of these
causes, in the constitution of the crust of the earth are
chiefly--
I. The Destruction of Rocks.
II. The Reproduction of others.
III. Changes of Level.
IV. The Production of New Rocks from the interior of the globe
upon its surface.
Changes which in their general characters bear so strong an
analogy to those which are suspected to have occurred in the
earlier ages of the world's history, that, until the processes
which give rise to them have been maturely studied under every
shape, and then applied with strict impartiality to explain the
appearances in question; and until, after a long investigation,
and with the most liberal allowances for all possible
variations, and an unlimited series of ages, they have been
found wholly inadequate to the purpose, it would be the height
of absurdity to have recourse to any gratuitous and unexampled
hypothesis for the solution of these analogous facts[29].
It was not till 1826, four years after the completion of the work, that
Scrope managed to publish his book on the Auvergne, and to tear himself
away from the speculative questions by which he had become obsessed. No
one could be more candid than he was in acknowledging the causes of his
failure to impress his views upon his contemporaries. Writing in 1858,
he said of his _Considerations on Volcanos_:--
'In that work unfortunately were included some speculations on
theoretic cosmogony, which the public mind was not at that time
prepared to entertain. Nor was this my first attempt at
authorship, sufficiently well composed, arranged or even
printed, to secure a fair appreciation for the really sound and,
I believe, original views on many points of geological interest
which it contained. I ought, no doubt, to have begun with a
description of the striking facts which I was prepared to
produce from the volcanic regions of Central France and Italy,
in order to pave the way for a favourable reception, or even a
fair hearing, of the theoretical views I had been led from these
observations to form[30].'
He adds that 'this obvious error was pointed out in a very friendly
manner' in a notice of the memoir on _The Geology of Central France_,
which was contributed by Lyell to the _Quarterly Review_ in 1827[31].
Scrope's geological career however--though one of so much promise--was
brought to a somewhat abrupt termination. In 1821 he had married the
last representative and heiress of the Scropes, the old Earls of
Wiltshire, and soon afterwards he settled down at the family seat of
Castle Combe, eventually devoting his attention almost exclusively to
social and political questions. From 1833 to 1868, when he retired from
Parliament, he was member for Stroud; and though he seldom took part in
the debates, he became famous as a writer of political tracts, thus
acquiring the sobriquet of 'Pamphlet Scrope.' He himself used to relate
an amusing incident at his own expense. His great friend Lord
Palmerston, on being greeted with the question, 'Have you read my last
pamphlet?' replied mischievously, 'Well Scrope, I hope I have!'
It is sad to relate that, owing to a carriage accident, Scrope's wife
became a confirmed invalid and he had no child to succeed to the estate.
Though cut off by other duties from the geological world, Scrope
maintained his correspondence with his old friend Lyell, and, as we
shall see in the sequel, was able to render him splendid service by the
luminous though discriminating reviews of the _Principles of Geology_ in
the _Quarterly Review_. Throughout his life, however, Scrope preserved a
love of geology, and occasionally contributed to the literature of the
science; and in his closing years, when unable to travel himself, he
gave to others the means of carrying on the researches in which he had
from the first been so deeply interested.
* * * * *
Fortunately for science, Lyell's devotion to geological study was not,
like Scrope's, interrupted by the claims made upon him by social and
political questions. Feeling though he did, with his friend, the deepest
sympathy in all liberal movements, and being especially interested in
the reform of educational methods, his geological work always had the
first claim on his time and attention, and nothing was allowed to
interfere with his scientific labours.
[Illustration: Cha Lyell]
Charles Lyell was the eldest son of a Scottish laird, whose forbears,
after making a fortune in India, had purchased the estate of Kinnordy in
Strathmore, on the borders of the Highlands. Lyell's father was a man
of culture, a good classical scholar, a translator and commentator on
Dante, and a cryptogamic botanist of some reputation.
Lyell's mother, an Englishwoman from Yorkshire, was a person of great
force of character; this she showed when, on coming to Kinnordy, she
found drunkenness so prevalent among the lairds of this part of
Scotland, as to cause a fear on her part, that her husband might be
drawn into the dangerous society: she therefore induced him, when their
son Charles was only three months old, to abandon their Scottish home,
and settle in the New Forest of Hampshire. Thus it came about that the
future geologist, though born in Scotland, became, by education, habits
and association, English.
Charles Lyell's attention was first drawn to geology by seeing the
quartz-crystals and chalcedony exposed in the broken chalk-flints, which
he, as a boy of ten, used to roll down, in company with his
school-fellows, from the walls of Old Sarum. Like Charles Darwin, too,
he became an ardent and enthusiastic collector of insects, and grew to
be a tall and active young fellow, a keen sportsman, with only one
drawback--a weakness of the eyes which troubled him through all his
after life.
It was when at the age of seventeen he went to Oxford and came under the
influence of Dr Buckland that Lyell first became deeply engrossed in
geology.
Lyell used to tell many amusing stories of the oddities of his old
teacher and friend Buckland. In his lectures, both in the University and
on public platforms, Buckland would keep his audience in roars of
laughter, as he imitated what he thought to be the movements of the
iguanodon or megatherium, or, seizing the ends of his long clerical
coat-tails, would leap about to show how the pterodactyle flew. Lyell
became greatly attached to Buckland, who used to take him privately on
geological expeditions. On one of these occasions, they were dining at
an inn, where a gentleman at another table became greatly scandalised by
Buckland's conversation and manners. The professor, seeing this, became
more outrageous than ever, and on parting with Lyell for the night took
the candle and placed it between his teeth, so as to illuminate the
mouth-cavity exclaiming, 'There Lyell, practise this long enough and you
will be able to do it as well as I do.' When Buckland had retired, the
stranger revealed himself to Lyell as an old friend of his father's,
adding 'I hope you will never be seen in the company of that buffoon
again.' 'Oh! Sir,' said the startled undergraduate, 'that is my
professor at Oxford!' But Buckland did not always originate the fun, for
Lyell told me that, when the professor visited Kinnordy in his company,
he led him a long tramp under promise of showing him 'diluvium
intersected by whin dykes,' and, in the end, pointed to fields in a
boulder-clay country separated by gorse ('whin') hedges ('dykes').
Buckland, as shown by his _Vindiciae Geologicae_ (1820) and his
_Bridgewater Treatise_ (1836), was the most uncompromising of the
advocates for making all geological teaching subordinate to the literal
interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis; and in his _Reliquiae
Diluvianae_ (1823) he stoutly maintained the view that all the
superficial deposits of the globe were the result of the Noachian
deluge! He was indeed the great leader of the Catastrophists, and it is
not surprising to find Lyell, while still under his influence, scoffing
at 'the Huttonians[32].'
That Buckland greatly influenced Lyell in his youth, especially by
inoculating him with his splendid enthusiasm for geology, there can be
no doubt; and Lyell, far as he departed in after life from the views of
his teacher, never forgot his indebtedness to the Oxford professor. Even
in 1832, in publishing the second edition of the first volume of his
_Principles_, he dedicated it to Buckland, as one 'who first instructed
me in the elements of geology, and by whose energy and talents the
cultivation of science in the country has been so eminently
promoted[33].'
On leaving Oxford in 1819, at the age of twenty-two, Lyell joined the
Geological Society. What were the dominant opinions at that time on
geological theory among the distinguished men, who were there laying
the foundations of stratigraphical geology, we have already seen. Lyell,
in his frequent visits to the continent, became a friend of the
illustrious Cuvier, whose strong bias for Catastrophism was so forcibly
shown in his writings and conversation.
What then, we may ask, were the causes which led Lyell to abandon the
views in which he had been instructed, and to become the great champion
of Evolutionism?
It has often been assumed that Lyell was led by the study of Hutton's
works to adopt the Uniformitarian' doctrines. But there is ample
evidence that such was not the case. As late as the year 1839, Lyell
wrote of Hutton, 'Though I tried, I doubt whether I fairly read half his
writings, and skimmed the rest[34]'; and he emphatically assured Scrope
'Von Hoff has assisted me most[35].'
The fact is certain that Lyell, quite independently, arrived at the same
conclusions as Hutton, _but by totally different lines of reasoning_.
As early as 1817, when Lyell was only twenty years of age, he visited
the Norfolk coast and was greatly impressed by the evidence of the waste
of the cliffs about Cromer, Aldborough, and Dunwich; and three years
later we find him studying the opposite kind of action of the sea in the
formation of new land at Dungeness and Romney Marsh. All through his
life there may be seen the results of these early studies in a tendency
which he showed to _overrate marine action_; the chief defect in his
early views consisting in not fully realising the importance of that
subaerial denudation--of which Hutton was so great an exponent. But it
was in his native county of Forfarshire that Lyell found the most
complete antidote to the Catastrophic teachings. Buckland had taught him
that the 'till' of the country had been thrown down, just 4170 years
before, by the Noachian deluge: while Cuvier had asserted that the study
of freshwater limestones proved them to differ from any recent deposit
by their crystalline character, the absence of shells and the presence
of plant-remains, as well as by the occasional occurrence in them of
bands of flint. As the result of this, Cuvier and Brongniart had
declared that _the freshwater of the ancient world possessed properties
which are not observed in that of modern lakes_[36]. Lyell visited
Kinnordy from time to time between 1817 and 1824, and found on his
father's estate and other localities in Strathmore a number of small
lakes, lying in hollows of the boulder clay. These were being drained
and their deposits quarried for the purpose of 'marling' the land; the
excavations thus made showed that, under peat containing a boat hollowed
out of the trunk of a tree, there were calcareous deposits, sometimes 16
to 20 feet in thickness, which passed into a rock, solid and
crystalline in character as the materials of the older geological
formations and containing the stems and fruits of the freshwater plant
_Chara_ (Stone wort).
With the help of Robert Brown the botanist, and of analyses made by
Daubeny, with the advice of his life-long friend, Faraday, Lyell was
able to demonstrate that from the waters of the Forfarshire lakes,
containing the most minute proportions of calcareous salts, a limestone,
identical in all respects with those of the older rocks of the globe,
had been deposited, with excessive slowness, by the action of
plant-life[37]. He was thus enabled to supply a complete refutation of
the views put forward by Buckland and Cuvier.
Thus while Hutton had been led to his conclusion concerning evolution in
the inorganic world, by studying the waste going on in the weathered
crags and the flooded rivers of his native land, Lyell's conversion to
the same views was mainly brought about by the study of changes due to
the action of the sea along the English coasts, and by studying the
evidence of constant, though slow, deposition of limestone-rocks, by the
seemingly most insignificant of agencies.
Lyell however did not by any means neglect the study of the action of
rain and rivers. During his visits to Forfarshire, he had his initials
and the date cut by a mason on many portions of the rocky river-beds
about his home. Fifty years afterwards (in 1874) I visited with him the
several localities, to ascertain what amount of waste had resulted from
the constant flow of water over these hard rocks. It was in most cases
singularly small, the inscriptions being still visible, though deprived
of their sharpness; even the sandy detritus carried along by the
streams, being buoyed up by the water, had not been able in half a
century to wear away a thickness of half-an-inch of the hard rock. The
most singular result we noticed was, that the leaden small shot fired by
sportsmen, in the Highland tracts, whence these streams flowed, had
collected in great numbers in hollows formed by the young geologist's
inscriptions.
By his father's request, Lyell after leaving Oxford studied for the bar,
but there is no doubt that his main interest was in geological study. He
had made the acquaintance of Dr Mantell, and carried on a number of
researches in the south of England either alone or with that
geologist[38]. Four years after joining the Geological Society, in which
he was a constant worker, he became one of the secretaries. This was in
1823 when he was only 26 years of age. His frequent visits to Paris and
to various parts of the continent enabled him to exchange ideas with
many foreign naturalists, and it is clear from his correspondence that
at this early period he had abandoned the Catastrophic doctrines of his
teachers and friends.
Let us now consider the outside influences which were at work on Lyell's
mind in these early days. In the year 1818, the eminent palaeontologist
Blumenbach induced the University of Gottingen to offer a prize for an
essay on '_The investigation of the changes that have taken place in the
earth's surface conformation since historic times, and the applications
which can be made of such knowledge in investigating earth revolutions
beyond the domain of history._' A young German, Von Hoff, won the prize
by a most able book, displaying great erudition, entitled _The History
of those Natural Changes in the Earth's Surface, which are proved by
Tradition_. The first volume of this work appeared in 1822, and treated
of the results produced on the land by the action of the sea; the second
volume, published in 1824, dealt with the effects of volcanoes and
earthquakes. Von Hoff's learned work was confined to the collection of
data from classical and other early authors bearing on these subjects,
and to reasonings based on these records; for, unfortunately, he did not
possess the means necessary for travelling and making observations in
the districts described by him. Lyell acknowledges the great assistance
afforded to him by these two volumes of Von Hoff's work, but, unlike
that author, he was able to visit the various localities referred to,
and to draw his own conclusions as to the nature of the changes which
must have taken place. It is pleasant to be able to relate that the
debt which he owed to Von Hoff was fully repaid by Lyell; for the
learned German's third volume appeared after the issue of the
_Principles of Geology_, and as Zittel assures us 'its influence on Von
Hoff is quite apparent in the third volume of his work[39].'
At this period, too, Lyell had the advantage of travelling both on the
continent and in various parts of Great Britain with the eminent French
geologist, Constant Prevost, who had shown his courage by opposing some
of the catastrophic teachings of the illustrious Cuvier himself.
Still more important to Lyell were the opportunities he enjoyed for
comparing his conclusions with those of Scrope, who had joined the
Geological Society in 1824, and became a joint secretary with Lyell in
the following year. From both of them, in their old age, I heard many
statements concerning the closeness and warmth of their friendship, and
the constant interchange of ideas which took place between them at this
time.
From Scrope, Lyell heard of the occurrence of great beds of freshwater
limestone in the Auvergne, on a far grander scale than in Strathmore,
with many other facts concerning the geology of Central France, which so
greatly excited him as in the end to alter all his plans concerning the
publication of his own book. As soon as Scrope's great work on Auvergne
was published, Lyell undertook the preparation of a review for the
_Quarterly_--and this review was a very able and discriminating
production.
Although Lyell did not derive his views concerning terrestrial evolution
directly from Hutton, as is sometimes supposed, there were two respects
in which he greatly profited when he came to read Hutton's work at a
later date.
In the first place, he was very deeply impressed by the necessity of
avoiding the _odium theologicum_, which had been so strongly, if
unintentionally, aroused by Hutton, of whom he wrote, 'I think he ran
unnecessarily counter to the feelings and prejudices of the age. This is
not courage or manliness in the cause of Truth, nor does it promote
progress. It is an unfeeling disregard for the weakness of human nature,
for it is our nature (for what reason heaven knows), but as _it is_
constitutional in our minds, to feel a morbid sensibility on matters of
religious faith, I conceive that the same right feeling which guards us
from outraging too violently the sentiments of our neighbours in the
ordinary concerns of the world and its customs, should direct us still
more so in this[40].'
In the second place, Lyell was warned by the fate of Hutton's writings
that it was hopeless to look for success in combatting the prevailing
geological theories, unless he cultivated a literary style very
different from that of the _Theory of the Earth_. Lyell's father had to
a great extent guided his son's classical studies, and at Oxford, where
Lyell took a good degree in classics, he practised diligently both prose
and poetic composition. Lyell once told me that his tutor Dalby
(afterwards a Dean) had put Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire_ into his hand with certain passages marked as 'not to be read.'
When he had studied the whole work (of course including the marked
passages) he said he conceived a profound admiration for the author's
literary skill--and this feeling he retained throughout his after life.
It is not improbable, indeed, that Lyell learned from Gibbon that a
'frontal attack' on a fortress of error is much less likely to succeed
than one of 'sap and mine.' Lyell was always most careful in the
composition of his works, sparing no pains to make his meaning clear,
while he aimed at elegance of expression and logical sequence in the
presentation of his ideas. The weakness of his eyes was a great
difficulty to him, throughout his life, and, when not employing an
amanuensis, he generally wrote stretched out on the floor or on a sofa,
with his eyes close to the paper.
The relation of Lyell's views to those of Hutton, may best be described
in the words of his contemporary, Whewell, whose remarks written
immediately after the publication of the first volume of the
_Principles_, lose nothing in effectiveness from the evident, if
gentle, note of sarcasm running through them:--
'Hutton for the purpose of getting his continents above water,
or manufacturing a chain of Alps or Andes, did not disdain to
call in something more than common volcanic eruptions which we
read of in newspapers from time to time. He was content to have
a period of paroxysmal action--an extraordinary convulsion in
the bowels of the earth--an epoch of general destruction and
violence, to usher in one of restoration and life. Mr Lyell
throws away all such crutches, he walks alone in the path of his
speculations; he requires no paroxysms, no extraordinary
periods; he is content to take burning mountains as he finds
them; and, with the assistance of the stock of volcanoes and
earthquakes now on hand, he undertakes to transform the earth
from any one of its geological conditions to any other. He
requires time, no doubt; he must not be hurried in his
proceedings. But, if we will allow him a free stage in the wide
circuit of eternity, he will ask no other favour; he will fight
his undaunted way through formations, transition and
floetz--through oceanic and lacustrine deposits; and does not
despair of carrying us triumphantly from the dark and venerable
schist of Skiddaw, to the alternating tertiaries of the Isle of
Wight, or even to the more recent shell-beds of the Sicilian
coasts, whose antiquity is but, as it were, of yester-myriad of
years[41].'
Never, surely, did words written in a tone of banter constitute such
real and effective praise!
But though it is certain that Lyell did not _derive_ his evolutionary
views from Hutton, yet when he came to write his historical introduction
to the _Principles_, he was greatly impressed by the proofs of genius
shown by the great Scotch philosopher, and equally by the brilliant
exposition of those views by Playfair in his _Illustrations_. To the
former he gave unstinted praise for the breadth and originality of his
views, and to the latter for the eloquence of his writings--adopting
quotations chosen from these last, indeed, as mottoes for his own work.
It is only just to add that for the violent prejudices excited by some
of his contemporaries against Hutton's writings--as being directed
against the theological tenets of the day and therefore subversive of
religion--there is really no foundation whatever; and every candid
reader of the _Theory of the Earth_ must acquit its author of any such
design. The passage quoted on page 51 could only have been written by
Lyell at a time when he was still unacquainted with Hutton's works, and
was misled by common report concerning them. It is interesting to note,
however, that the passage occurs in a letter written in December 1827,
that is after the first draft of the _Principles of Geology_ had been
'delivered to the publisher,' and before the preparation of the
historical introduction, which would appear to have led to the first
perusal of Hutton's great work, and that of his brilliant illustrator,
Playfair.