Lyell, however, clearly perceived that it was absolutely necessary that every teacher of professorial rank should be himself a pioneer in his subject—a fact of which government officials, as a rule, seem to be totally ignorant. His comments, a little later in the year, on the arrangements at the University of Bonn are worth recording. "The Professors have to lecture for nine months in the year—too much, I should think, for allowing time for due advancement of the teacher." Lyell's desires in regard to remuneration seem reasonable enough. He is anxious to earn by his scientific work enough to provide for the extra expenses which this work entails, and yet to command sufficient time to advance his knowledge and reputation. The fates proved more propitious to him than they are generally to men of science, for he succeeded in accomplishing both of his desires.
Little of importance happened during the early part of 1832. There was plenty of hard work in collecting facts, in consulting friends about special difficulties, and in working at the manuscript for the third volume of the "Principles," for the second made its appearance almost with the new year. Toil was sweetened by occasional pleasures, such as an evening with the Somervilles, or a dinner party at the Murchisons, a talk with Babbage or Fitton, or a symposium at the Geological Club, at which it is sometimes evident that good care was taken lest science should become too dry. One passage in his diary indicates that sixty years have considerably changed the habits of life in town and in the country, for at the present day most people would express themselves in the opposite sense. "I have enjoyed parties and two plays this month very much, because it was recreation stolen from work; but the difficulty in the country is that, on the contrary, one's hours of work are stolen from dissipation."
The lectures at King's College were begun in May. Lyell evidently was not a nervous man, but he regarded the near approach of this new kind of work with some trepidation, and admits that he slept ill before the first lecture. It was, however, a decided success in every respect, and the audience was a large one, for the Council, after some hesitation, had permitted the attendance of ladies. Each lecture was pronounced by the hearers to be better than the last, and Lyell uses the opportunity, as he says, to fire occasional shots at Buckland, Sedgwick, and others who are still hankering after catastrophic convulsions and all-but universal deluges. As a further encouragement, his publisher, Murray, agrees willingly to a reprint of the first volume of the "Principles," and only hesitates between an edition of 750 or of 1,000 copies. About this time, also, he was asked to undertake the presidency of the Geological Society, but that, notwithstanding Murchison's urgency, he firmly declined for the present; writing of it to Miss Horner, "It is just one of those temptations the resisting of which decides whether a man shall really rise high or not in science. For two more years I am free from les affaires administratives, which, said old Brochart in his late letter to me, have prevented me from studying geology d'une manière suivie, whereby you have already carried it so far."
He was, however, soon to be engrossed in an "affair" of another kind; one which has proved very detrimental to the progress of many men of science, but which, in Lyell's case, had the happiest results, and smoothed rather than it impeded his path to fame; for in the summer—on July 12th—he ceased to be a bachelor. The marriage was celebrated at Bonn, where Miss Horner's family were still resident. A Lutheran clergyman seems to have officiated, and the ceremony was a very quiet one; the distance from home preventing the attendance of English friends or even of relations of the bridegroom.
The newly-married couple departed from Bonn up the Rhine, and travelled by successive stages to Heidelberg, but they were not forgetful of geology, even in the first week of the honeymoon, for they visited as they journeyed more than one interesting section on the western edge of the Odenwald. Then they made excursions to Carlsruhe and Baden-Baden, and ultimately travelled from Freiburg to Schaffhausen through the romantic defiles of the Höllenthal, and across the corner of the Black Forest. A journal was now needless, and probably the newly-married couple were too much engrossed with their own happiness to write many letters, for few details have been preserved about their Swiss tour. It was, however, comparatively a short one, for they remained less than a fortnight in the country. Still Lyell probably found it useful in refreshing recollections and testing his early impressions by greatly increased knowledge and experience. From the valley of the Rhone they crossed the Simplon Pass into Italy and followed the usual road to Milan along the shore of the Lago Maggiore.
How long they remained in Italy, or by what route they returned to England, is not stated; indeed, for nearly six months next to nothing is on record concerning Lyell's movements or work, but in the beginning of 1833 he and his wife were settled in London at No. 16, Hart Street, Bloomsbury, which became their residence for some years. A state of happiness is not always indicated by much correspondence: probably it was so with Lyell; at any rate, a single letter, dated January 5th, gives the only information of his doings between September, 1832, and April, 1833. In this letter, however, he mentions that the Council of King's College had decided that in future ladies should not be admitted to Lyell's lectures, and that, in consequence, he had received a pressing invitation from the managers of the Royal Institution to give, after Easter, a course of six or eight lectures in their theatre, coupled with the offer of a substantial remuneration.
At the end of April, as he tells his old friend Mantell, both these courses had been begun. The one at the Royal Institution was attended by an audience of about 250, that at King's College, after the opening lecture, dropped down to a class of fifteen. The falling-off was entirely due to the above-named resolution. For this the Council had assigned a reason, which, perhaps, was not a prudent course, for bodies of that kind, when they give reasons, often succeed only in "giving themselves away." The presence of ladies was forbidden, "because it diverted the attention of the young students, of whom," Lyell remarks sarcastically, "I had two in number from the college last year and two this." Had the Council stated boldly that the College did not appoint professors to lecture urbi et orbi, their policy, though it would have appeared a little selfish and might have proved shortsighted, would have been defensible, because the institution was founded for the education of a particular class. But the reason assigned was open to Lyell's retort, and gave the impression of unreality. It is not impossible that the decision was the result of secret "wire-pulling," and represented not so much a fear of the disturbing influence of the fair sex as a dread of the popularity of the subject. Geology was still regarded with grave distrust by a very large number of people, and King's College, it must be remembered, was founded in the supposed interests of the Church of England and in the hope of neutralising the effects of the unsectarian institution in Gower Street. Many of its supporters may have been characterised rather by the ardour of their dislikes than by the width of their sympathies, and may have put pressure on the Council, so that this body may have considered it safer to risk driving a popular man from their staff than to alienate an important section of their adherents and to expose the College to the danger of being charged with lending itself to heretical teaching.[54]
The preparation of these lectures must have been attended with some difficulty, for Lyell writes that, "like all the world," he and his household—everyone except his wife—had been down with the influenza, which in that year was even more rampant in London than it has been in any of its recent visits. But, notwithstanding this and any other interruptions, the third and final volume of the "Principles of Geology" made its appearance in the month of May, 1833.
FOOTNOTES:
[29] Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 255.