onest feeling
to declare it undisguisedly[54].'

Under these circumstances the publication by Scrope of his two long
notices of the _Principles_ in the _Review_ which was regarded as the
champion of orthodoxy, was most opportune. A very clear sketch was given
in these reviews of the leading facts and the general line of argument;
and at the same time the allowing of prejudice or prepossession to
influence the judgment on such questions was very gently deprecated[55].

But Scrope's reviews did not by any means consist of an indiscriminate
advocacy of Lyell's views. In one respect--that of the great importance
of subaerial action as contrasted with marine action--Scrope's views
were at this time in advance of those of Lyell, and he called especial
attention to the direct effects produced by rain in the earth-pillars of
Botzen. These Lyell had not at the time seen, but took an early
opportunity of visiting. Scrope, too, was naturally much more
speculative in his modes of thought than Lyell, and argued for the
probably greater intensity in past times of the agencies causing
geological change, and for the legitimacy of discussing the mode of
origin of the earth. Lyell, like Hutton, argued that he saw '_no signs_
of a beginning,' but his characteristic candour is shown when he
wrote:--

'All I ask is, that at any given period of the past, don't stop enquiry,
when puzzled, by a reference to a "beginning," which is all one with
"another state of nature," as it appears to me. But there is no harm in
your attacking me, provided you point out that it is the _proof_ I deny,
not the _probability_ of a beginning[56].'

Lyell clearly foresaw the opposition with which his book would be met
and wisely resolved not to be drawn into controversy. He wrote:--

'I daresay I shall not keep my resolution, but I will try to do it
firmly, that when my book is attacked ... I will not go to the expense
of time in pamphleteering. I shall work steadily on Vol. II, and
afterwards, if the work succeeds, at edition 2, and I have sworn to
myself that I will not go to the expense of giving time to combat in
controversy. It is interminable work[57].'

In order to maintain this resolve, Lyell, the moment the last sheet of
the volume was corrected, set off for a four months' tour in France and
Spain. While absent from England, he heard little of what was going on
in the scientific world; but, on his return, Lyell was told by Murray
that in the three