萬物簡史 第81期:敲石頭的人們(13)

Lyell's oversights were not inconsiderable. He failedto explain convincingly how mountain ranges wereformed and overlooked glaciers as an agent ofchange. He refused to accept Louis Agassiz's idea ofice ages—"the refrigeration of the globe," as hedismissively termed it—and was confident thatmammals "would be found in the oldest fossiliferousbeds." He rejected the notion that animals andplants suffered sudden annihilations, and believedthat all the principal animal groups—mammals,reptiles, fish, and so on—had coexisted since thedawn of time. On all of these he would ultimately be proved wrong.

萊爾的失誤并不算少。他沒有令人信服地解釋山脈是怎么形成的，沒有看到冰河是個變化的動因。他不愿意接受阿加西斯關于冰期的觀點--他輕描淡寫地將其稱之為"地球制冷"--堅信"在最古老的化石床里會發(fā)現(xiàn)"哺乳動物。他拒絕接受關于動物和植物突然死亡的看法，認為所有主要的動物群體--哺乳動物、爬行動物、魚類等等--自古以來一直同時存在。在這些問題上，最后證明他是完全錯誤的。

Yet it would be nearly impossible to overstate Lyell's influence. The Principles of Geologywent through twelve editions in Lyell's lifetime and contained notions that shaped geologicalthinking far into the twentieth century. Darwin took a first edition with him on the Beaglevoyage and wrote afterward that "the great merit of the Principles was that it altered the wholetone of one's mind, and therefore that, when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw itpartially through his eyes." In short, he thought him nearly a god, as did many of hisgeneration. It is a testament to the strength of Lyell's sway that in the 1980s when geologistshad to abandon just a part of it to accommodate the impact theory of extinctions, it nearlykilled them. But that is another chapter.

然而，萊爾的影響你幾乎怎么說也不會過分?！兜刭|學原理》在他生前出了12版;直到20世紀，書里包含的一些觀點依然被地質學界奉為圭臬。達爾文乘"獵犬"號環(huán)球航行途中還隨身帶著一本《地質學原理》，而且是該書的第1版。他后來寫道："《原理》的最大優(yōu)點在于它改變了一個人的整個思想狀態(tài);因此，當見到一樣萊爾從沒有見到過的東西的時候，你在一定程度上是以他的眼光來看的。"總之，他差不多把萊爾看做是個神，就像他那一代人的許多人一樣。20世紀80年代，當?shù)刭|學家不得不擯棄他的一部分理論，以適應關于絕種的撞擊理論的時候，他們簡直痛苦得要命。這充分說明了萊爾的影響之大。不過，那是后話了。