Life, Letters, and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., Author of the Principles of Geology, &c

Abstract

I. “THE Principles of Geology” and “The Origin of Species” are the two books which have unquestionably exercised the most powerful influence upon the direction of scientific thought during the present century. The first of these works not only prepared the way for the second, but, as Darwin himself has told us, may actually be regarded as its progenitor, for it was the study of the “Principles” which induced the young naturalist to make his now famous “Voyage Round the World” and to collect those facts and observations out of which eventually grew the theory of Natural Selection. The wonderful revolution in thought which followed the appearance of the “Origin of Species” is still fresh in our minds, but those who could remember the effects produced by the publication of “The Principles of Geology,” were wont to relate that fifty years ago scientific thought and speculation received an impetus no less powerful than that of which we have witnessed the results in our own time.

Life, Letters, and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., Author of the Principles of Geology, &c.

Edited by his Sister-in-law, Mrs. Lyell. In two volumes. With Portrait. (London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1881.)