'THE PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY'
We have seen that as early as the year 1817, when he visited East
Anglia, Lyell began to experience vague doubts concerning the soundness
of the 'Catastrophist' doctrines, which had been so strongly impressed
upon him by Buckland. And these doubts in the mind of the undergraduate
of twenty years of age gradually acquired strength and definiteness
during his frequent geological excursions, at home and abroad, during
the next ten years. At what particular date the design was formed of
writing a book and attacking the predominant beliefs of his
fellow-geologists, we have no means of ascertaining exactly; but from a
letter written to his friend Dr Mantell, we find that at one time Lyell
contemplated publishing a book in the form of 'Conversations in
Geology[42],' without putting his name to it. This was probably
suggested by the manner in which Copernicus and Galileo sought to
circumvent theological opposition in the case of Astronomical Theory.
But this plan appears to have been soon abandoned; and by the end of the
year 1827, when he had reached the age of thirty, Lyell had sent to the
printer the first manuscript of the _Principles of Geology_, proposing
that it should appear in the course of the following year in two octavo
volumes[43].
A great and sudden interruption to this plan occurred however, for just
at this time Lyell was engaged in writing his review for the _Quarterly_
of Scrope's work on _The Geology of Central France_, and while doing
this his interest was so strongly aroused by the accounts of the
phenomena exhibited in the Auvergne, that he was led for a time to
abandon the task of seeing his own book through the press; and, having
induced Murchison and his wife to accompany him, set off on a visit to
that wonderful district. He also felt that, before completing the second
part of his book, he needed more information concerning the Tertiary
formations, especially in Italy.
Lyell had been very early convinced of the supreme importance of travel
to the geologist. In a letter to his friend Murchison he said:--'We must
preach up travelling, as Demosthenes did "delivery" as the first, second
and third requisites for a modern geologist, in the present adolescent
state of the science[44].'
And Professor Bonney has estimated that so far did he himself practise
what he preached, that no less than one fourth of the period of his
active life was spent in travel[45].
The joint excursion of Lyell and Murchison to the Auvergne was destined
to have great influence on the minds of these pioneers in geological
research; both became satisfied from their studies that, with respect to
the excavation of the valleys of the country, Scrope's conclusions were
irresistible; and in a joint memoir this position was stoutly maintained
by them.
It is interesting to notice the impression made by these two great
geologists on one another during this joint expedition.
Murchison wrote that he had seen in Lyell 'the most scrupulous and
minute fidelity of observation combined with close application in the
closet and ceaseless exertion in the field[46].'
But I recollect that Lyell once told me how difficult Murchison found it
to restrain himself from impatience, when his companion's attention was
drawn aside by his entomological ardour. In an early letter, indeed, we
find that Murchison often expressed a wish that Lyell's sisters had been
with them to attend to the insect-collecting and thus leave Lyell free
for geological work[47].
On the other hand, Lyell informed me that Murchison had rendered him a
great service in showing how much a geologist could accomplish by
taking advantage of riding on horseback, and he declared in his letters
that he 'never had a better man to work with than Murchison';
nevertheless he ridiculed his 'keep-moving-go-it-if-it-kills-you' system
as--quoting from the elder Matthews--he called it[48].
On parting from Murchison and his wife, after the Auvergne tour, Lyell
proceeded to Italy and for more than a year he was busy studying the
Tertiary deposits of Lombardy, the Roman states, Naples and Sicily, and
conferring with the Italian geologists and conchologists. Thus it came
about that he was not free to resume the task of seeing the _Principles_
through the press till February 1829.
Immediately after his return to England Lyell was compelled, with the
assistance of his companion Murchison, to defend their conclusions
concerning the excavations of valleys by rivers from a determined attack
of Conybeare, who was backed up by Buckland and Greenough; the old
geologists endeavoured to prove that the river Thames had never had any
part in the work of forming its valley[49]. It is interesting to find
that, on this occasion, Sedgwick, who was in the chair, was so far
influenced by the arguments brought forward by the young men, as to lend
some aid to those who had come to be called the 'Fluvialists,' in
contradistinction to the 'Diluvialists'; he went so far as to suggest
that, with regard to the floods which the Catastrophist invoked, it
would be wiser at present to 'doubt and not dogmatise[50].'
To what extent the MS. of the _Principles_, sent to the publisher in
1827, was added to and altered two years later, we have no means of
knowing; but that the work was to a great extent rewritten would appear
from a letter sent to Murchison by Lyell, just before his return to
England. In it, he says:--
'My work is in part written, and all planned. 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, which, as you know, are neither
more nor less than that _no causes whatever_ have from the earliest time
to which we can look back to the present, ever acted, but those that are
_now acting_, and that they never acted with different degrees of energy
from that which they now exert'; but in 1833, in dedicating his third
volume to Murchison, he refers to the MS., completed in 1827, as a
'first sketch only of my _Principles of Geology_[51].'
At one period, Lyell contemplated again delaying publication till he had
visited Iceland. In the end, however, after declining to act as
professor of geology in the new 'University of London' (University
College), he set himself down steadily to the task of seeing the book
through the press. It was at this time that Lyell experienced a singular
piece of good fortune, comparable with that which befel Darwin thirty
years afterwards, by his book falling into the hands of a very
sympathetic reviewer. John Murray, who had undertaken the publication of
the _Principles_, was also the publisher of the _Quarterly Review_, and
Lockhart, the editor of that publication, undertook that an early notice
of the book should appear, if the proof-sheets were sent to the
reviewer. Buckland and Sedgwick were successively approached on the
subject of reviewing Lyell's book, but both declined on the ground of
'want of time'; though I strongly suspect that their real motive in
refusing the task was a disinclination to attack--as they would
doubtless have felt themselves compelled to do--a valued personal
friend. Conybeare was, fortunately, thought to be out of the question,
as Lockhart said he 'promises and does not perform in the reviewing
line.'
Very fortunately at this juncture, Lockhart, who was in the habit of
attending the Geological Society and listening to the debates (for as he
used to say to his friends whom he took with him from the Athenaeum,
'though I don't care for geology, yet I _do_ like to see the fellows
fight') thought of Scrope. Although he had practically retired from the
active work of the Geological Society at this time, Scrope was known as
an effective writer, and, happily for the progress of science, he
undertook the review of Lyell's book.
Although, of course, Lyell had no voice in the choice of a reviewer for
the _Principles_, yet he could not fail to rejoice in the fact that it
had fallen to his friend, who so strongly sympathised with his views, to
introduce it to the public. While the book was being printed and the
review of it was in preparation, a number of letters passed between
Lyell and Scrope, and the latter, before his death, gave me the
carefully treasured epistles of his friend, with the drafts of some of
his replies. These letters, some of which have been published, throw
much light on the difficulties with which Lyell had to contend, and the
manner in which he strove to meet them.
As we have already seen, many of the leaders in the Geological Society
at that day besides being strongly inclined to Wernerian and Cataclysmal
views, had an honest, however mistaken, dread lest geological research
should lead to results, apparently not in harmony with the accounts
given in Genesis of the Creation and the Flood. Lyell, as this
correspondence shows, was most anxious to avoid exciting either
scientific or theological prejudice. He wrote, 'I conceived the idea
five or six years ago' (that is in 1824 or 5) that 'if ever the Mosaic
geology could be set down without giving offence, it would be in an
historical sketch[52],' and 'I was afraid to point the moral ... about
Moses. Perhaps I should have been tenderer about the Koran[53].' He
further says 'full _half_ of my history and comments was cut out, and
even many facts, because either I, or Stokes, or Broderip, felt that it
was anticipating twenty or thirty years of the march of honest feeling
to declare it undisguisedly[54].'
Under these circumstances the publication by Scrope of his two long
notices of the _Principles_ in the _Review_ which was regarded as the
champion of orthodoxy, was most opportune. A very clear sketch was given
in these reviews of the leading facts and the general line of argument;
and at the same time the allowing of prejudice or prepossession to
influence the judgment on such questions was very gently deprecated[55].
But Scrope's reviews did not by any means consist of an indiscriminate
advocacy of Lyell's views. In one respect--that of the great importance
of subaerial action as contrasted with marine action--Scrope's views
were at this time in advance of those of Lyell, and he called especial
attention to the direct effects produced by rain in the earth-pillars of
Botzen. These Lyell had not at the time seen, but took an early
opportunity of visiting. Scrope, too, was naturally much more
speculative in his modes of thought than Lyell, and argued for the
probably greater intensity in past times of the agencies causing
geological change, and for the legitimacy of discussing the mode of
origin of the earth. Lyell, like Hutton, argued that he saw '_no signs_
of a beginning,' but his characteristic candour is shown when he
wrote:--
'All I ask is, that at any given period of the past, don't stop enquiry,
when puzzled, by a reference to a "beginning," which is all one with
"another state of nature," as it appears to me. But there is no harm in
your attacking me, provided you point out that it is the _proof_ I deny,
not the _probability_ of a beginning[56].'
Lyell clearly foresaw the opposition with which his book would be met
and wisely resolved not to be drawn into controversy. He wrote:--
'I daresay I shall not keep my resolution, but I will try to do it
firmly, that when my book is attacked ... I will not go to the expense
of time in pamphleteering. I shall work steadily on Vol. II, and
afterwards, if the work succeeds, at edition 2, and I have sworn to
myself that I will not go to the expense of giving time to combat in
controversy. It is interminable work[57].'
In order to maintain this resolve, Lyell, the moment the last sheet of
the volume was corrected, set off for a four months' tour in France and
Spain. While absent from England, he heard little of what was going on
in the scientific world; but, on his return, Lyell was told by Murray
that in the three months before the _Quarterly Review_ article appeared,
650 copies of the volume, out of the 1500 printed, had been sold, and he
anticipated the disposal of many more, when the review came out. This
expectation was realised and led to the issue of a second edition of the
first volume, of larger size and in better type.
Lyell, from the first, had seen that it would be impossible to avoid the
conclusion that the principles which he was advancing with respect to
the inorganic world must be equally applicable to the organic world. At
first he only designed to touch lightly on this subject, in the
concluding chapters of his first volume, and to devote the second volume
to the application of his principles to the interpretation of the
geological record. He, however, found it impossible to include the
chapters on changes in the organic world in the first volume and then
decided to make them the opening portion of the second volume.
It is evident, however, that as the work progressed, the interest of the
various questions bearing on the origin of species grew in his mind.
While Lyell found it impossible to accept the explanation of origin
suggested by Lamarck, he was greatly influenced by the arguments in
favour of evolution advanced by that naturalist; and as he wrote chapter
after chapter on the questions of the modification and variability of
species, on hybridity, on the modes of distribution of plants and
animals, and their consequent geographical relations, and discussed the
struggle of existence going on everywhere in the organic world, in its
bearings on the question of 'centres of creation,' he found the second
volume growing altogether beyond reasonable limits. His intense interest
in this part of his work is shown by his remark, 'If I have succeeded so
well with inanimate matter, surely I shall make a lively thing when I
have chiefly to talk of living beings[58]?'
By December 1831, Lyell had come to the resolution to publish the
chapters of his work which dealt with the changes going on in the
organic world as a volume by itself. This second volume of the
_Principles_ he gracefully dedicated to his friend Broderip, who had
rendered him such valuable assistance in all questions connected with
Natural History.
This volume appeared in January 1832, at the same time that a second
edition of the first volume was also issued. The reception of the second
volume by the public appears to have been not less favourable than that
of the first.
In March 1831, Lyell had accepted the Professorship of Geology in King's
College, London. In addition to his desire to aid in the work of
scientific education, in which he had always taken so great an interest,
Lyell seems to have felt that the task of presenting his views in a
popular form would be aided by his having to expound them to a
miscellaneous audience. For two years, these lectures were delivered,
and attracted much attention; the favourable impressions produced by
them on a man of the world have been recorded by Abraham Hayward, and on
more scientific thinkers by Harriet Martineau.
The third volume of the _Principles_ was not completed till a second
edition of the second volume had been issued. This third volume,
appearing in May 1833, dealt with the classification of the Tertiary
strata, to which Lyell had devoted so much labour, studying conchology
under Deshayes, and visiting all the chief Tertiary deposits of Europe
for the collection of materials. The application of the principles
enunciated in the two earlier volumes to the unravelling of the past
history of the globe, constituted the chief task undertaken in this part
of the great work. But not a few controversial questions were dealt
with, and the famous 'metamorphic theory' was advanced in opposition to
the Wernerian hypothesis of 'primitive formations.' The volume was
appropriately dedicated to Murchison, who had been Lyell's companion in
the famous Auvergne excursion, which had produced such an effect on his
mind.
Within a twelvemonth, a third edition of the whole work in four small
volumes was issued, and in the end no less than twelve editions of the
_Principles of Geology_ were issued, in addition to portions separately
published under the titles of _Manual_, _Elements_, and _Student's
Elements of Geology_, of all of which a number of editions have
appeared. Lyell was always the most painstaking and conscientious of
authors. He declared 'I must write what will be read[59],' and he spared
no labour in securing accuracy of statement combined with elegance of
diction. His father, a good classical and Italian scholar, had done much
towards assisting him to attain literary excellence, and at Oxford,
where he took a good degree in classics, he was greatly impressed by the
style of Gibbon's writings, and practised both prose and poetic
compositions with great diligence.
Both Darwin and Huxley always maintained that the real charm and power
of Lyell's work are only to be found in the _first edition_[60]. As new
discoveries were made or more effective illustrations of his views
presented themselves to his mind, passage after passage in the work was
modified by the author or replaced by others; and the effects of these
constant changes--however necessary and desirable in themselves--could
not fail to be detrimental to the book as a work of art. He who would
form a just idea of the greatness of Lyell's masterpiece, must read the
first edition, of course bearing in mind, all the while, the state of
science at the time it was written.