Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, FRSwas a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularized James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism—the idea that the Earth was shaped by the same processes still in operation today. Principles of Geology also challenged theories popularized by Georges Cuvier, which were the most accepted and circulated ideas about geology in England at the time...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth14 November 1797
ordinary earth violence
In attempting to explain geological phenomena, the bias has always been on the wrong side; there has always been a disposition to reason á priori on the extraordinary violence and suddenness of changes, both in the inorganic crust of the earth, and in organic types, instead of attempting strenuously to frame theories in accordance with the ordinary operations of nature.
taken kingdoms causes
Geology is the science which investigates the successive changes that have taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature; it enquires into the causes of these changes, and the influence which they have exerted in modifying the surface and external structure of our planet.
animal vegetables perfect
There is no foundation in geological facts, for the popular theory of the successive development of the animal and vegetable world, from the simplest to the most perfect forms.
past keys
The present is the key to the past
money credit debit
Never call an accountant a credit to his profession; a good accountant is a debit to his profession.
bones commonly drift plains
In valley drift we meet commonly with the bones of quadrupeds which graze on plains bordering rivers.
above change draw human marked periods race safe
So far, therefore, as we can draw safe conclusions from a single specimen, there has been no marked change of race in the human population of Switzerland during the periods above considered.
contradict naturally plead previous received tenor
In reply, I can only plead that a discovery which seems to contradict the general tenor of previous investigations is naturally received with much hesitation.
artificial banks both buried canals natural numerous observed several
In several sections, both natural in the banks of the Mississippi and its numerous arms, and where artificial canals had been cut, I observed erect stumps of trees, with their roots attached, buried in strata at different heights, one over the other.