Principles of Geology

The idea that made Darwin possible arrived first in geology. Lyell published this three-volume work between 1830 and 1833 to argue that the earth was shaped by the same slow forces still at work today, rain and rivers, earthquakes and volcanoes, given enough time, rather than by sudden catastrophes and floods. He drew on Mount Etna, on the columns of an Italian temple bored through by marine molluscs, and on evidence gathered across Europe, and the conclusion was that the planet must be immensely old. Darwin carried the first volume aboard the Beagle and had the others sent out to him, and he later said he saw the world partly through Lyell’s eyes. Free PDF and EPUB edition here.