ss and embrace
fervently after a long absence. This seemed to be Mr Phillips' case,
coming up occasionally from the provinces. Fitton then finished this
drollery by charging me with not having done justice to Hutton, who he
said was for gradual elevation.

"I replied, that most of the critics had attacked me for overrating
Hutton, and that Playfair understood him as I did.

"Whewell concluded by considering Hopkins' mathematical calculations, to
which Darwin had often referred. He also said that we ought not to try
and make out what Hutton would have taught and thought, if he had known
the facts which we now know."

It may be necessary to point out, in explanation of the above narrative,
that while it was perfectly clear from Hutton's rather obscure and
involved writings that he advocated slow and gradual change on
the earth's surface, his frequent references to violent action and
earthquakes led many--including Playfair, Lyell and Whewell--to believe
that he held the changes going on in the earth's interior to be of
a catastrophic nature. Fitton, however, maintained that Hutton was
consistently uniformitarian. Before the idea of the actual "flowing" of
solid bodies under intense pressure had been grasped by geologists,
De la Beche, like Playfair before him, maintained that the bending
and folding of rocks must have been effected before their complete
consolidation.

In concluding his account of this memorable discussion, Lyell adds: "I
was much struck with the different tone in which my gradual causes
was treated by all, even including De la Beche, from that which they
experienced in the same room four years ago, when Buckland, De la
Beche(?), Sedgwick, Whewell, and some others treated them with as much
ridicule as was consistent with politeness in my presence."

This important paper was, in spite of its theoretical character,
published in full in the "Transactions of the Geological Society" (Ser.
2, Vol. V. pages 601-630). It did not however appear till 1840, and
possibly some changes may have been made in it during the long interval
between reading and printing. During the year 1839, Darwin continued his
regular attendance at the Council meetings, but there is no record of
any discussions in which he may have taken part, and he contributed
no papers himself to the Society. At the beginning of 1840, he was
re-elected for the third time as Secretary, but the results of failing
health are indicated by the circumst