LYELL, Charles. - Great geologist, b. at Kinnordy (Scotland) 14 Nov. 1797, d. in London 22 Feb. 1855. In 1830-33 he published the first edition of his course of lectures delivered at the Royal College of London, under the title Principles of Geology, in which the physical and biological phenomena and events of the past are identified with those exogenous and endogenous phenomena which are now occurring on the surface of the earth (the law of “actual causes” or “uniformitarianism,” whose foundations were laid by GIOVANNI Arduino in 1775 and by Hutton in 1785). Other important publications concern his travels in Europe and the United States. A particularly notable work is that entitled Elements of Geology (London 1838).
He was an apologist of evolution, to which he attributed a profound religious significance: he admitted, in fact, “an action of the Most Wise First Efficient Cause, an immediate, regular and permanent action, but infinitely varied.” “We cannot think that this world is a place of trial and moral cultivation for one of the lower animals, nor would any of these derive comfort and joy from faith in the life to come. To man, however, this faith is granted, so consonant with his reason and answering to the religious sentiments impressed by nature in his heart. This doctrine tends to elevate him, step by step up the scale of being, morally and spiritually...” (The geological evidences of the antiquity of man, etc., London 1863, p. 505).