"Unless I can feel that I am working to some decided end, such as that
of fame, money, or partly both, I cannot be quite happy, or cannot feel
a stimulus to that strenuous application without which I should not
remain content." He had learned what "strenuous application" means, and
knew that there is no success without it. When congratulated by his
friends "in not looking older for his hard work," he said, "The way to
do much and not grow old is, to be moderate in not going out, to work a
few hours, or half-hours, at a time, ... and to go to bed at eleven
o'clock." He would not accept many invitations socially. "A man should
have some severity of character, and be able to refuse invitations,
etc.," he said. "The fact is, that to become great in science, a man
must be nearly as devoted as a lawyer, and must have more than mere
talent.... I think I never do so much as when I have fought a battle not
to go out." Those who have written books will appreciate this statement,
and recall the many days when they have closed the shutters and worked,
though they longed to be out-of-doors in the sunlight.
In 1833, the year after his marriage, he gave by invitation a course of
seven lectures before the Royal Institution, a high honor. In 1834, he
passed several months in Sweden, and wrote back to his "dearest
Mary,"--"I have been ten hours without a word with my love, but thinking
of her more than half the time, and comforting myself that she is less
alone than I am." ... He kept a journal for her of his daily work.
"It is now twenty-five days that we have been separated, and I have
often thought of what you said, that the active occupation in which I
should constantly be engaged would give me a great advantage over you. I
trust, however, that you also have been actively employed. At leisure
moments I have done some things towards planning my next volume. It will
be necessary for us to have a work together at fossils at Kinnordy,
first, and then in town, and then in Paris." Thus fully had the young
wife entered into his studies.
In 1835, having received the gold medal of the Royal Society, for his
"Principles of Geology,"--now in its fourth edition, which Sir John
Herschel said he had read three times,--he was elected president of the
Geological Society of London, and made extensive researches in
Switzerland, Germany, and Scotland.
In 1841, already famous as well as beloved, Lyell was invited to give
twelve lectures before the Lowell Institute, in Boston. He and his wife
spent thirteen months in the United States, studying the country
geologically; its social life, its politics, and our benevolent and
educational institutions. Between two and three thousand persons came,
both morning and evening, to listen to the distinguished scholar, who
had travelled almost the world over to study his beloved science.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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