LYELL, Charles.

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Principles of Geology, First edition of the founding text of modern geology. Lyell's work influenced generations of geologists to reject divine theories of the earth's formation and led Darwin to conceive a timescale large enough for evolution by natural selection. Sets are often seen in mismatched or later bindings, making examples like this particularly notable.In contrast to prevailing catastrophism, which contended that the earth had formed through a series of supernatural interventions, Lyell marshals a vast amount of historical data to propose a uniformitarian theory of the earth - contending instead that the planet was shaped, then as now, by natural and universally active processes. One implication of this argument was that geological time had to be vast, as these processes operated so slowly. Aboard the Beagle, Darwin devoted as much time to geology as he did to natural fauna and flora, and his geological material from the voyage vastly outnumbered his biological notes. By observing geological formations and phenomena throughout the world, Darwin was able to corroborate and extend Lyell's theory of an earth shaped gradually over untold aeons - a timescale large enough to allow evolution by natural selection. As he later wrote in the Origin, any artificial selection attempted by man would pale in comparison "with those accumulated by nature during whole geological periods" (pp. 83-4).

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