萬物簡史 第74期:敲石頭的人們(6)

Luckily Hutton had a Boswell in the form of JohnPlayfair, a professor of mathematics at the Universityof Edinburgh and a close friend, who could not onlywrite silken prose but—thanks to many years atHutton's elbow—actually understood what Huttonwas trying to say, most of the time. In 1802, fiveyears after Hutton's death, Playfair produced asimplified exposition of the Huttonian principles,entitled Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of theEarth. The book was gratefully received by thosewho took an active interest in geology, which in 1802was not a large number. That, however, was about to change. And how.

還算運(yùn)氣，赫頓在約翰•普萊費(fèi)爾身上找到了一個(gè)鮑斯韋爾式的人物。普萊費(fèi)爾是愛丁堡大學(xué)的數(shù)學(xué)教授，赫頓的一位密友。他不但寫得出漂亮的散文，而且--幸虧多年在赫頓身邊--在大多數(shù)情況下知道赫頓其實(shí)想要說些什么。1802年，在赫頓去世5年以后，普萊費(fèi)爾推出了赫頓原理的簡寫本，題目叫做《關(guān)于赫頓地球論的說明》。這本書受到了對(duì)地質(zhì)學(xué)感興趣的人的歡迎。這種人在1802年還為數(shù)不多。然而，情況快要發(fā)生變化。那么，情況是怎么發(fā)生變化的?

In the winter of 1807, thirteen like-minded souls in London got together at the FreemasonsTavern at Long Acre, in Covent Garden, to form a dining club to be called the GeologicalSociety. The idea was to meet once a month to swap geological notions over a glass or two ofMadeira and a convivial dinner.

1807年，倫敦13個(gè)志同道合的人在科文特加登廣場朗?？私值墓矟?jì)會(huì)酒店聚會(huì)，成立了一個(gè)餐飲俱樂部，后來取名為地質(zhì)學(xué)會(huì)。學(xué)會(huì)每月碰一次頭，一邊喝一兩杯馬德拉白葡萄酒，吃一頓交際飯，一邊交換對(duì)地質(zhì)學(xué)的看法。

The price of the meal was set at a deliberately hefty fifteen shillings to discourage thosewhose qualifications were merely cerebral. It soon became apparent, however, that there wasa demand for something more properly institutional, with a permanent headquarters, wherepeople could gather to share and discuss new findings. In barely a decade membership grewto four hundred—still all gentlemen, of course—and the Geological was threatening to eclipsethe Royal as the premier scientific society in the country.

這頓飯的價(jià)錢故意定在昂貴的15先令，以便使那些沒有頭腦的人望而卻步。然而，事情很快就變得一清二楚，需要有個(gè)設(shè)有永久性總部的合適機(jī)構(gòu)，人們可以在那里分享和討論新的發(fā)現(xiàn)。不到10年，成員就發(fā)展到400名——當(dāng)然仍都是紳士--地質(zhì)學(xué)會(huì)看來要使皇家學(xué)會(huì)相形見絀，成為該國的首要科學(xué)社團(tuán)。