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One of the key works in the nineteenth-century battle between science and Scripture

Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830-33) sought to explain the geological state of the modern Earth by considering the long-term effects of observable natural phenomena. Written with clarity and a dazzling intellectual passion, it is both a seminal work of modern geology and a compelling precursor to Darwinism, exploring the evidence for radical changes in climate and geography across the ages and speculating on the progressive development of life. A profound influence on Darwin, Principles of Geology also captured the imagination of contemporaries such as Melville, Emerson, Tennyson and George Eliot, transforming science with its depiction of the powerful forces that shape the natural world.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Principles of Geology

Edited with an Introduction by James A. Secord

Numbers in italics refer to chapters included only as summaries or in brief extracts

List of Illustrations
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on This Edition

Volume I (1830)
1: Objects and Nature of Geology
2-4: Historical Sketch of the Progress of Geology
5: Theoretical Errors which have Retarded the Progress of Geology
6: Assumed Discordance of the Ancient and Existing Causes of Change Controverted - Climate
7: Climate, continued
8: Climate, continued
9. Theory of the Progressive Development of Organic Life
10-17: Aqueous Causes
18-22: Igneous Causes
23-24: Earthquakes and their Effects
25: Earthquakes, continued - Temple of Serapis
26. Causes of Earthquakes and Volcanos

Volume II (1832)
1: Changes of the Organic World - Reality of Species
2: Theory of the Transmutation of Species Untenable
3: Limits of the Variability of Species
4: Hybrids
5-7: Geographical Distribution of Species
8: Changes in the Animate World, which Tend to the Extinction of Species
9: Changes in the Animate World, which Tend to the Extinction of Species, continued
10: Changes in the Inorganic World, Tending to the Extinction of Species
11: Whether the Extinction and Creation of Species Can Now be in Progress
12: Modifications in Physical Geography Caused by Plants, the Inferior Animals, and Man
13-16, 17: How the Remains of Man and his Works are becoming Fossil beneath the Waters
18: Corals and Coral Reefs

Volume III (1833)
1: Methods of Theorizing in Geology
2: General Arrangement of the Materials Composing the Earth's Crust
3: Different Circumstances under which the Secondary and Tertiary Formations may have Originated
4: Determination of the Relative Ages of Rocks
5: Classification of Tertiary Formations in Chronological Order
6-7: Newer Pliocene Formations - Sicily
8: Rocks of the Same Age in Etna
9: Origin of the Newer Pliocene Strata of Sicily
10-26: Former Changes of the Earth's Surface
Concluding Remarks

Glossary
Notes
Bibliography of Reviews
Index
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