SIR CHARLES LYELL.* WHEN the poet Rogers heard from Mrs.
Lyell that she had been to Norway, with her husband, without having seen a waterfall, he said, "That comes of having a man with a hammer for a.. fellow-traveller." No description of Sir Charles Lyell could be- more apt than this. The study of geology was the absorbing passion of his life, and to its development he devoted all his time and energy. Other branches of natural science were not neglected ; indeed, he was, generally, a naturalist of no. mean order, but geology stood with him first and foremost, and every allied science was pressed into its service, and called upon to aid its expansion, and help to elucidate its problems. Sparing himself neither fatigue nor expense in the pursuit of his favourite study, there were times when it gained an almost overpowering hold upon him. Thus, to Charles Darwin, in 1838, he writes :—
Life ,f Sir Charles Lysll. Edited by his Sister-in-Law, Mrs. Lyell. 2 Tole, London: John Murray.
"I am very glad to hear you like the Atbenmum. I used to make one mistake when first I went there. When anxious to push on with my book, after a two-hours' spell,' I went there by way of a lounge, and instead of that, worked my head very hard, being excited by meeting with clever people, who would often talk to me, very much to my profit, on the very subject on which I was writing ; or I fell in with a review or magazine relating to geology. Now, this was all very well, but I used to forget that this ought to count for work, although nothing had been written, and that I ought, consequently, to give up my second 'two-hours' spell.' By not doing so, I was -often brought to a dead-stop, so that at last, for fear of even meeting with anybody in the street who would talk geology, I was sometimes driven for a walk into Gray's Inn Gardens. But then, you will say, comes the difficulty how to avoid theorising, for nothing substantial is gained when there is no pen, ink, or paper before one. After lying two hours fallow, the mind is refreshed, and then in five minutes your fancy will frame speculations which it will take you the two . hours to realise on paper. As your eyes are strong, you can afford to read the light articles and newspaper gossip, which I could never indulge in much with impunity."
The weakness of the eyes, to which allusion is made here, troubled Lyell throughout life, and many are the references made to it in these volumes. Fortunately, it does not seem to have interfered in any way with his work in the field ; and armed, like Thor of old, with his hammer, he travelled unceasingly over Western Europe and North America, comparing facts, collect- ing evidence, and seeking to unravel difficulties. " As to geology having half my heart," he wrote to Miss Horner, to whom he was engaged, " I hope I shall be able to give my whole soul to it, with that enthusiasm by which alone advance can be made in any science, or indeed in any profession." This aspiration was abundantly fulfilled, and it is hardly a matter for wonder that in the letters and journals of a man who loved his profession so strongly, geology should crop up in almost every page. Indeed, in reading this book, we have been reminded of the story of the old woman who, in answer to her grandchild's inquiries as to what was under the earth, said, " Rocks, child." "And what is under the rocks ?" said the inquirer. " Rocks," was the reply. " And what is under those rocks, grandmother ?" " More rocks, child ; it's rocks all the way down." Letters to his wife, to his father, to his sisters, to his friends, and to his little nephew, Leonard Lyell, have, almost without an exception, a geological basis or substratum, in itself deeply interesting, and often bearing a delightfully entertaining superstructure. Yet we must confess that it is with some surprise, and a little disappointment, that we find these two large and handsome volumes to be composed entirely of a selection from the letters and journals of Sir C. Lyell, with merely a short introductory heading to some of the chapters. It may fairly be questioned, without wishing to be captious, whether this is the most satisfactory method of telling the story of a man's life. Certainly, it has the advantage of let- ting him speak for himself, but a great deal will necessarily occur which requires context, explanation, and comment, to give it its due value. The narrative of the life is to some degree -destroyed, and the delight which is afforded by the perusal of well-written biography or autobiography must, therefore, be wanting. In the volumes now under consideration, the editing has been ably done, and the selection given is, on the whole, judicious. There are few men whose history would bear telling in the method here pursued so well as Lyell's ; yet admirable as these letters are, one does become a little wearied by the perusal of several hundred of them, and inclined to "pause for a reply," which is vouchsafed in one case only. The feeling is difficult to avoid that desirable as it is to learn what a clever man who had a wide sphere for obser- vation wrote about men and events to his contemporaries, it is equally important, in order to judge of him rightly, to know what others wrote to him and said about him. Lyell as a geologist is known from his works, it is Lyell as a member of society that we want to meet with here.
The volumes commence with the fragment of an auto- biography, written when Lyell was about thirty-five, and this, although not carried to the end of his school-life, is so excellent and so graphic that the reader will regret its brevity. He was born at Kinnordy, in Forfarshire, in 1797, but his father lived for many years at Bartley, in the wild and lovely region of the New Forest. At the early age of ten, he became an enthusiastic entomologist, the lepidoptera attracting him first. He says :-
"I had no companion to share this hobby with me, no one to en- courage me in following it up, yet my love for it continued always to increase, and it afforded a most varied source of amusement. I was chiefly attracted by the beauty of the Lepidopterous tribe ; in common parlance, by the butterflies, moths, hawk-moths (sphinxes), besides the procuring the chrysalis, and seeing its transformation ; and the feeding and breeding of caterpillars was another reason for preferring this numerous and showy class. I soon, however, learnt to prefer the rare to the brilliant species, and was not long in dis- covering, by the comparison of one season with another, that each species had its peculiar time for appearing, some twice, some once only, in the year ; some by day, some in the evening, and others at distant hours of the night. The only other insects that engaged in the least my attention at that time were the aquatic. I was greatly surprised to find every pond tenanted by water-beetles of different sizes and shapes, and to observe them row themselves along by the broad row of bristles attached to their legs. I threw flies and moths into the water, and observed them rise, and learnt their relative strength, seeing some species relinquish the booty on the appearance of others. The long, spider-like flies which run on the surface, the glimmer-chafers which thread the surface in what we called a figure- of-eight movement, the beetles which swim on their backs, and many others, such as the red-tick, used to be caught and brought in a basin into my bedroom, and there kept, to the annoyance of the housemaids when the water was none of the sweetest ; and then bite whole were fed with window flies, until some died, and others took wing in the night and flew back to their native waters."
He graduated at Oxford, taking a second-class in classical honours, and began to read for the Bar ; but the weakness of his eyes compelled him to relinquish the work for a period, during which he travelled much, and made some geological excursions. He was called to the Bar in 1825, and followed the Western Circuit for two years, but the attractions of his favourite study were too strong for him, and he relinquished the Bar, and took up geology as a profession. So early as 1826, he was made an F.R. S., and two years later he made an important tour with Murchison in the volcanic region of Auvergne, and went on by himself to Italy and Sicily, where, in spite of consider-
able hardship, he carefully investigated Etna. During this time he was diligent in collecting materials and evidence for his Prin-
ciples of Geology, the first volume of which appeared in 1830, and marks an era in geological progress. Advancing the theories of Hutton, he insisted that the same agencies now at work have been sufficient in ancient times to produce the effects visible on the earth's surface. As astronomy postulates infinite space, so does geology demand, if not quite unlimited, at least very extensive, periods of time for the action of its causes.
These views, it is needless to say, are now generally accepted; but at this period they met with great opposition from the Diluvialists, as they called themselves, beaded by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, then Professor of Geology at Oxford, and long and fierce was the struggle that raged at the meetings of the Geologi- cal Society. In 1831, Lyell was appointed to the Chair of Geology at King's College, London, but finding that its duties would interfere with his field-work, he gave it up in two years or so. Lyell was one of those rarely fortunate men who, with a definite object before them, are not obliged to devote any of their energies to the provision of ways and means. He was born in a good social position, and he made excellent use of his opportunities. When quite a young man, he was introduced to Cuvier and Humboldt, and in the course of a long life he came in contact with all the leading men of his day in the world of science and in the world of literature. He was honoured with the friendship of the Queen and the late Prince Consort, whom he held in the highest esteem, and says of him in one place :- " The Prince Consort is a host in himself in forwarding educa- tion, worth all the English Whigs put together." This was to his friend Ticknor, to whom some of the best of his letters on social subjects were addressed. Indeed, the letters to this friend are all delightful, and are all well worth reading. Lyell was in Paris during the Revolution of 1830, and he seems always to have been interested in French politics. American affairs also largely engaged his attention. He visited the States four times, and during the second visit he went into Georgia, where he was favourably impressed with the improved condition and education of the slaves, whom he thought likely to suffer very much more than gain from emancipation. When the great war broke out, however, he at once took the side of the North ; and, perhaps, the finest of all the letters here given is one to his friend, Mr. T. S. Spedding, on the War of Seces- sion. In it he shrewdly says :—
" The Times, whose leaders against the United States were always copied into their newspapers, did much in one way to help the North. It made them feel that if they fell to pieces (and the Secession in the South once yielded, would have been followed by other dismember- ments), they would be treated by foreign nations, at least by us, with that contempt to which the weak alone are exposed."
English politics he avoided, as be thought scientific men had "as little to do with them, in point of influencing them, as with the government of the hurricanes or earthly motion ; and if one becomes annoyed, there is an end of steady work." He re- fused the candidature for Parliament suggested to him by some of the most influential graduates of the University of Lon- don. Lyell went everywhere and met everybody. He was obvi- ously fond of society, and if not witty himself, could appreciate wit in other people. There are plenty of capital stories and clever sayings of the principal characters among a generation now passed away, to be found recorded here, as, for example, this anecdote of his friend, Dr. Fitton. Lyell writes :—" Fitton was in great force. I got him to refresh my memory with his story of a Dublin professor who said to his class, Gentlemen, the Hon. Mr. Boyle was a great man ; he was the father of chemistry, and uncle to the Earl of Cork ;' from which, says Fitton, his pupils worked out the conclusion that chemistry and the Earl of Cork were first cousins." Here, too, we find the following, perhaps to be met with elsewhere, but it will bear repetition :—" They (Lord Lansdowne and Lord Clarendon) were talking of Sydney Smith, and how he never talked of his mother ; whereas, his brother, Bobus Smith, was so fond of dilating on the excellences and extraordinary beauty of their mother. On this, Lord Lansdowne said one day, he (Bobus) bored Talleyrand so much with that theme in London, that Talleyrand said,—" C'etoit done monsieur votre Ore qui etoit si laid."
But we must forbear further quotation. Any one who will turn to the book itself will find therein a mine of interest and entertainment, and by a judicious exercise of the art of skip- ping weariness may be avoided. The style of the writing is remarkably level throughout. Both letters and journals are done in most excellent English, and they are never hasty or slipshod in composition. Lyell was an accomplished, well- educated man, of a kindly and affectionate disposition, and possessed of indomitable perseverance and industry. Care- ful always to acknowledge his own indebtedness to other authors, he insisted on his own rights in the same respect; but this was without the least pedantry, from which he was entirely free. He seems to have been simple and unaffected. Wherever he went, he observed closely .what was around him ; and with his high spirits and a mind stored with information, and being a good talker, he must have been a delightful companion. There is complete absence of any bitterness of feeling, except on one point,—when he found the progress of science or education checked by religious intolerance. Sir Charles Lyell died in 1875, at the advanced age of 77, at his house in Harley Street, since occupied by Mr. Gladstone ; and he was buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey, with the honours which his labours so richly deserved. The gravestone of fossil marble from Derby- shire there forms a fitting monument to him as a geologist, and these volumes afford a still worthier tribute to him as a man.
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