CHAPTER IX.
STEADY PROGRESS.
The "Principles of Geology" had been completed and published for thirteen years, yet catastrophism, as we learn from a correspondence with Edward Forbes,[116] dated September, 1846, was dying hard. "Agassiz, Alcide D'Orbigny, and their followers [were still] trying to make out sudden revolutions in organic life in support of equally hypothetical catastrophes in the physical history of the globe."[117] A remark in Forbes's reply is striking:—
"You are pleased to compliment my paper on its originality. Any praise from you must ever be among the greatest gratifications to me, and to any honest labourer in the great field of Nature. But I had rather hear the views I have set forward be proved not original than the contrary. It seems to me that the surest proof of the truth of such conclusions as I have summed up at the end of my essay is the fact of their not being original so far as one person is concerned, and of their having become manifest to more than one mind, either about the same time or successively, without communication. I believe laws discover themselves to individuals, and not that individuals discover laws. If a law have truth in it, many will see it about the same time."
In this month also the Lyells removed from Hart Street to 11, Harley Street. The house where they had spent fourteen years very happily was not left without regret, but it had become too small. They had no children, but a rapidly increasing geological collection takes up almost as much room as (though it is much more silent than) a growing family. The removal of a geological collection is a laborious business; and, besides this, Lyell was preparing a new edition of the "Principles" and writing a book about his recent travels in America. Still, to judge from his letters, he found time for some pleasant social distractions; for his letters to the old home at Kinnordy contain more often than formerly interesting references to talks with such men as Macaulay, Milman, and Rogers, Lord Clarendon and Lord Lansdowne. The seventh edition of the "Principles," condensed into a bulky single volume, was published early in 1847, and in the following June Lyell attended the meeting of the British Association at Oxford, which appears to have been no less pleasant than successful, although "out of twenty-four Heads of Houses only four were at Oxford to receive the Association." On this occasion, he writes, he became better acquainted with "Ruskin, who was secretary of our Geological Section." The remainder of this summer was spent in Scotland, and the rest of the year, with most of the following one, was devoted to quiet work. Still, Lyell took an active part in a crisis through which, about this time, the Royal Society was passing. A number of the Fellows, including most of those eminent in science, were anxious to raise the standard for admission into the Society. For many years past the "three letters" had often signified little more than an indication of good means and social position, coupled with a certain interest in scientific pursuits. The reformers prevailed, after a long struggle "with a set of obstructives compared with whom Metternich was a progressive animal," and the present status of the society is the result. Incidental remarks in Lyell's letters to his relations also indicate that he was becoming well known in circles other than scientific, of which a further proof was given in the autumn of 1848, when he received the offer of knighthood. Of course, in any country where "orders of merit" exist, other than Great Britain, Lyell would have been "decorated" years ago, but we manage things differently. As a rule, we let science and literature be their own reward, and, as an exception, confer the same distinction on a man who has won a world-wide reputation (provided he is fairly rich) and on an opulent tradesman who is accidently prominent on some auspicious occasion, or is a local wirepuller in party politics. Lyell went over from Kinnordy to Balmoral to receive the intended honour, and had, as he writes, "a most agreeable geological exploring on the banks of the Dee, into which Prince Albert entered with much spirit." In February, 1849, he was elected for the second time President of the Geological Society, and in the autumn, when at Kinnordy, was again invited to Balmoral, where he had some interesting talks with Prince Albert on subjects ranging from various educational and broad political questions to the entomology of Switzerland, Scotland, and the Isle of Wight.
In the middle of September he attended the meeting of the British Association at Birmingham, where he was for the third time President of the Geological Section. A few weeks later his father, whose health had been for some time failing, died at Kinnordy.[118] The latter was a rich man, but as he made liberal provision for his daughters and younger sons, Sir Charles, though he succeeded to a considerable estate, found himself unable to afford the expense of keeping up Kinnordy as well as a house in London. Which, then, was henceforth to be his home? The attractions of Kinnordy were obvious, but the long distance from the metropolis was a serious drawback, while the duties of a resident landlord would have interfered much with his geological work, which would have been still more hampered by the severance from libraries, museums, and intercourse with fellow-workers. Thus he felt it his duty to retain his house in London and to let Kinnordy, though, as his mother and sisters retreated to the "dower house," he was able from time to time to visit the old place. The decision probably was less painful than it otherwise would have been from the fact that his boyhood had been spent in England. At any rate, it was a wise one, in regard to both his own reputation and the progress of science in general.
In the summer of 1850, Sir Charles augmented his experience and refreshed old memories by a tour in Germany. During this he saw for the first time the Roth-todt-liegende or Lower Permian conglomerates at Halle and at Eisenach, as well as the great lava streams which had supplied them with so much of their materials. Also he went to the Brocken in order to examine into Von Buch's extraordinary assertion that the granite had "come up in a bubble." This, it is needless to say, was speedily pricked. The loess also, that singular deposit which wraps like a mantle so much of the undulating ground in Northern Germany, evidently engaged his attention, and we find the fruits of these studies in a later work. In addition to all this, he did more than glance at the Maestricht Chalk, the "Wealden" coal of Hanover, the Tertiary deposits near Berlin, the Palæozoic rocks of the Hartz, and the scenery of the Saxon Switzerland.
His books, his scientific papers, and Presidential addresses to the Geological Society, his duties as a commissioner, at first for the Exhibition of 1851, and somewhat later for the reform of the University of Oxford, kept him pretty well employed till August, 1852, when he for the third time crossed the Atlantic to deliver another course of lectures at the Lowell Institute, Boston. Though he was back in England before Christmas, he found time for some geological work in America, the most important item in which was an excursion from Halifax in company with his old acquaintance, Mr. J. W. Dawson, to the Nova Scotian coalfield. On this occasion he passed through a fair amount of country still uncleared, which made the journey more interesting; he had also opportunities of appreciating the effects of ice in moving and piling up boulders on the shores of lakes, and obtained still more evidence in regard to this, on reaching the sea-coast in the neighbourhood of the coalfield. But their labour was rewarded by one discovery of exceptional importance. In the trunk of a tree which had died and become hollow in a forest of the Carboniferous period, they found entombed the skeleton of an animal. Whether this were a fish or a reptile was at first hotly disputed, but finally it proved to be an amphibian.
On his return to England, Sir Charles was kept for some time fully employed by the preparation of the ninth edition of the "Principles," but early in the summer of 1853 he went for the fourth time to America—on this occasion in company with Lord Ellesmere—as commissioner to the Exhibition held at New York. But now his time was fully taken up by official duties, and his visit was a short one, for he returned before the end of July, and was soon afterwards invited to visit Osborne and give some account of his journey to the Queen and Prince Albert.