Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 29:115 (Jul 1872)
Article: Lyell’s Student’s Elements Of Geology
Author: John B. Perry

BSac 29:115 (July 1872) p. 479

Lyell’s Student’s Elements Of Geology

John B. Perry

Another volume by Sir Charles Lyell1 appeared a few months ago in England, and is now republished in this country. It is partly a new book, in part a recast and revision of the last edition of the “Elements.”2 As its title indicates, it is designed for students. It has been the aim of the author to present the matter in such a light as, without sacrificing substance, to adapt the publication to beginners. By the omission of portions of the earlier work, room has been secured for large additions; while effort has been made to exhibit the subject in fullest consonance with the existing state of knowledge.

Of course, on the appearance of any such work, it is all-

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important to know whether the task, gratefully assumed by the author, have been well executed; whether the subject, as profoundly grasped, have been genially and thoroughly elaborated; and whether the work be adapted to its end. One of the most prominent educators in the country having asked my opinion of the volume, I have read it with care, that my judgment might rest, not simply on familiar acquaintance with previous writings of the author, but especially on the merits of the book in question. In thus examining the work, I have had primary reference to its fitness for its proposed end, namely, to serve as a manual for students in elementary geology.3 Thinking that the results reached might be of benefit to many teachers, and perhaps of interest to others enlisted in studies of this kind, I will transcribe some of the points noted.

It may be said, at the outset, that the volume, while in no sense exhaustive, is a repository of important facts. Being familiar with nearly, if not quite, all the previous editions of the “Elements,” from the first impression down to the latest, I wish also to premise that each recension has been, as might have been reasonably expected, in some respects, an improvement on what has preceded, and that the volume now under consideration has some features deserving of praise, for which one will vainly look in any of the earlier forms of the work. While Sir Charles has seldom been in advance, he has labored hard to keep fully up with the march of science.

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In this way he has been able to evince progress in each new issue of his writings. It is true that the nature of these progressive movements has been largely determined by the labors of others — by the progress actually achieved ...