* LYELL, Slit CHARLES, au eminent living geologist, is the eldest son of Charles Lyell, Esq., of Killeen dy, Forfarshire, who died in 1849.
Sir Charles was born at Kinnordy, in Forfarshire, on tho 14th of November, 1797. He received his early education at Midhurst, in Sussex, and was subsequently entered at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated as B.A.i n 1819 and U.A. in 1821. Hero he had the opportunity of attending the lectures of Dr. Buckland, professor of geology, and thus acquired a taste for the science of which he has been so conspicuous a cultivator. He was however destined for the bar, and commenced practice as a barrister. His circumstances not rendering his profession necessary for a livelihood, and his tastes leading him to the culture of geology, he ultimately abandoned the practice of the law. On the opening of King's College in 1832 he was appointed professor of geology, but this position he soon gave up.
Mr. Lyell was one of the early members of the Geological Society, and from the time of the formation of that society to the present he has enriched its `Transactions' with his contributions. One of his earliest papers was published in the second volume of those Trans actions,' and was entitled, On a Recent Formation of Freshwater Limestone in Forfarshire, and on some Recent Deposits of Freshwater Marl ; with a Comparison of Recent with Ancient Freshwater Formations; and an Appendix on the Gyrogonite, or Seed-Vessel, of the Ohara.' This paper was published in 1826, and another in the same year, in Brewster's Journal of Science,' entitled, On a Dike of Serpentine cutting through Sandstone in the County of Forfar.' In 1827 two other papers occur in the Geological Transactions,' one 'On the Strata of the Plastic Clay Formation exhibited in the Cliffs between Christchurch Head, Hampshire, and Studland Bay, Dorsetshire ; the other, ' On the Freshwater Strata of Hordwell Cliff, Beacon Cliff, and Barton Cliff, Hampshire.' In this year also he wrote an article in the Quarterly Review' on Scrope's Geology of Central France.' These papers all indicate powers of observation and comparison of a high order, and prepared the geological world for the appearance of the work on which above all others the reputation of Sir Charles Lyell mainly rests ; this was his Principles of Geology.' The first volume of this work appeared in January 1830, the second in January 1832, and the third volume in May 1833. Such however was the impression produced by this work that second editions of the first and second volumes were required before the third volume appeared. A third edition of the whole work in four volumes appeared in May 1834, a fourth edition in 1835, and a fifth in 1837. This work treated geology from two points of view. First, the history of the earth was examined with regard to its modern changes, and the causes producing them ; second, an account was given of those monuments of analogous changes of ancient date. The first comprehending an account of the forces at work producing geological changes, and the second presenting a survey of the changes that had been accomplished in the past. As new editions of these works were required, and materials accumulated, the author was induced to separate the two parts of the work, and in 1838 he published a volume entitled 'Elements of Geology,' which contained a more full and elaborate treatment of that part of the first work devoted to the ancient history of the earth, or what may be called geology proper. A second edition of this work, in two volumes,
appeared in 1841. This work was again produced in one large volume in 1851, with the title of Manual of Elementary Geology.' A fourth edition appeared in 1852, and a fifth has since appeared. The ' l'rinciples ' were again published in three volumes in 1840, and in one large volume in 1847, 1850, and 1853.
Of these works, Sir Charles says, in his preface to the ninth edition of the Principles,' "The Principles' treat of such portions of the economy of existing nature, animate and inanimate, as are illustrative of geology, so as to comprise an investigation of the permanent effects of causes now io action, which may serve as records to after ages of the present condition of the globe and its inhabitants. Such effects are the enduring monuments of the ever-varying state of the physical geography of the globe—the lasting signs of its destruction and reno vation, and the memorials of the equally fluctuating condition of the organic world. They may bo regarded as a symbolical language, in which the earth's autobiography is written. In the 'Manual of Ele mentary Geology,' on the other hand, I have treated briefly of the component materials of the earth's crust, their arrangement and relative position, and their organic contents, which, when deciphered by aid of the key supplied by the study of the modern changes above alluded to, reveal to us the annals of a grand succession of past events —a series of revolutions which the solid exterior of the globe and its living inhabitants have experienced in times antecedent to the creation of man." Such is the author's account of the two great works, which more than any others have exercised an influence on the progress and development of geological science. It was undoubtedly the 'Principles' that called the attention of geologists to the necessity of regarding the past changes of the earth's surface as resulting from canoes now in operation. It demanded that geological science should be placed upon the same foundation as the other inductive sciences, and that those causes which could not be demonstrated to have existed should cease to influence the theories of the geologist. This work was at once acknowledged by the abler geologists of the day as an expression of the principles of their science. It met however with great opposition from those who imagined that it interfered with the authoritative declarations of Scripture. Sir Charles Lyell's own uni versity was most decided in its opposition to the new views, although its able professor of geology was not so. At the present time, the position taken by the author of the Principles' is generally acknow ledged as the only one consistent with a philosophical pursuit of geological science; and the theologian has admitted the necessity of adapting his opinions to the requirements of correct reasoning and undoubted facts. But whilst Sir Charles Lyell has thus the merit of having placed geology on a true scientific basis, he is at the head of a school of geologists whose views are not so generally accepted.