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How did lyell's principles of geology influence darwin?

Principles of Geology Reading Help?

  • I am taking an evolution class and we're reading an excerpt from Lyell's Principles of Geology. I'm having trouble understanding it, can someone help? Like reading it and telling me some main points, important points, etc THANKS! Go to http://books.google.com/books?id=43tYdgmU5zoC&pg=PA376&lpg=PA376&dq=Fossilization+of+plants+and+animals+partial+lyell&source=bl&ots=2I065dch9C&sig=zYK3qZoe2vZuYvC373ZLgIB5GG0&hl=en&ei=cSdoTYr4HMzpgQeQrPnKCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Plants%20and%20animals%20partial&f=false pages 376 - 379. Staring with Fossilization of Plants and Animals Partial. Thanks again!

  • Answer:

    What a poorly written book! It has so many commas, added thoughts, caveats and superfluous words that I can see why you are having trouble. As for the Fossilization of Plants and Animals, most of page 367 can be said this way. You can have the same plants and animals all over the world, they will live and die and be replaced by other animals but you can only get fossils being made where they are getting buried by debris and that gets compressed into rock. In other words No Rocks being formed - No chance of fossils. Not arguing with his brilliance. I know that middle english and that which followed shortly thereafter was written differently (now that you mention it, I do remember his name from some of my geology classes). Still, the question was not whether it was written well. I am not looking at it as an old text, I am looking at it as easily understandable by today's reader. Like Shakespeare, that style is difficult to understand until you reacquaint yourself with the idioms, language structure and culture of the day. No where did they say it was over 100 years old, they just asked what does it mean. I have seen textbooks as wordy and filled with excess commas as well as extraneous phrases and they are slow to read. That is my point. Sorry if your nose is bent because I don't care for the writing style in light of today's language structure.

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Lyell's Principles were written in the early 19th Century, and I must protest another contributor's suggestion that it is poorly written. Perhaps the language feels cumbersome or unfamiliar to a typical modern reader, but Lyell's Principles were perfectly accessible to scholars in his day, and in fact, I'll argue that the book is BEAUTIFULLY written. Our modern science literature, I sometimes think, might benefit from a little less dryness. Anyway, that work is the underpinning for our science of Geology, and my guess is you're probably reading it because Darwin had a copy on the Beagle, and had Lyell's principles fresh in his head when he came to develop some of his own brilliant ideas based on the things he saw on the voyage. Lyell was a brilliant fellow, and there's a reason that work is still in print after nearly two centuries. It is relevant.

scooter

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