Volume 183501

Principles of geology, being an inquiry how far the former changes of the earth's surface are referable to causes now in operation / By Charles Lyell, Esq. F.R.S. President of the Geological Society of London ... In four volumes.

  • Lyell, Charles, Sir, 1797-1875.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of geology, being an inquiry how far the former changes of the earth's surface are referable to causes now in operation / By Charles Lyell, Esq. F.R.S. President of the Geological Society of London ... In four volumes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    unacquainted with their effects.* He alludes, for example, to the upheaving of one of the Eolian islands previous to a volcanic eruption. “The changes of the earth,” he says, ‘“ are so slow in comparison to the du- ration of our lives, that they are overlooked (AavOaver) ; and the migrations of people after great catastrophes, and their removal to other regions, cause the event to be forgotten.” + When we consider the acquaintance displayed by Aristotle, in his various works, with the destroying and renovating powers of Nature, the introductory and concluding passages of the twelfth chapter of his “ Meteorics” are certainly very remarkable. In the first sentence he says, “ The distribution of land and sea in particular regions does not endure throughout all time, but it becomes sea in those parts where it was Jand, and again it becomes land where it was sea; and there is reason for thinking that these changes take place according to a certain system, and within a certain period.” The concluding observation is as follows: — “ As time never fails, and the universe is eternal, neither the Tanais, nor the Nile, can have flowed for ever. The places where they rise were once dry, and there is a limit to their operations; but there is none to time. So also of all other rivers; they spring up, and they perish; and the sea also continually deserts some lands and invades others. The same tracts, therefore, cf the earth are not, some always sea, and others always continents, but every thing changes in the course of time.” It seems, then, that the Greeks had not only derived from preceding nations, but had also, in some slight * Lib. ii. cap, 14, 15, and 16, + Ibid.