Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin

Abstract

Lyell's main work, The principles of geology (1830-1833), left a deep impression on Darwin. This is not only evident from the three geological books Darwin published after his return from the voyage of the Beagle, but also from his main work, The origin of species (1859). The latter can be considered as an application of Lyell's principle of uniformitarianism to the history of the living world. Lyell on the other hand never became a fully convinced Darwinian. It is suggested that this was mainly due to a fundamental difference between Lyell's steady-state model of the Earth's history, and Darwin's view of the history of life as a progressive process. Increased knowledge of the Earth's early Cryptozoic history shows that progressive changes also occurred in the history of the Earth. This, however, does not invalidate the general applicability of the principle of uniformitarianism throughout the whole of geological time.