The popular writings of Buffon, and his life—Pennant’s life—Lamarck and his life—The rise of popular natural history, and of exact descriptions and philosophical zoology 144 CHAPTER VIII. THE LIFE OF CUVIER. The union of zoology and comparative anatomy, and the examination and study of fossil remains 178 CHAPTER IX. HEROES OF GEOLOGY. The rise of the science which treats of the ancient history of the earth—Students of the present changes which are the examples by which the past may be comprehended—The Greeks—The life of Pythagoras; a notice of the geology of Aristoteles—Strabo’s life—The nature of fossils and the life of Steno 209 CHAPTER X. THE LIFE OF HUTTON. The rise of the modern school of geology—The continuity of the operations of nature and their sameness—The necessity of studying the existing state of things in order to comprehend the past—The denial of catastrophes—Hutton’s theory of the earth the foundation of scientific geology 221 CHAPTER XI. THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SMITH. The succession of the strata recognized—Strata known by their fossils, position, and mineral contents—England surveyed by Smith and made the type of the results of the succession of changes studied by geology 236 CHAPTER XII. THE LIFE OF MURCHISON. The older rocks of the globe studied accurately and surveyed—The general similarity of the succession of strata in many parts of the world decided—The geology of Wales and Scotland described—The commencement of accurate geological surveys 275 CHAPTER XIII. THE LIFE OF LYELL. The study of existing nature and its changes undertaken in order to comprehend the past changes during geological ages—The uniformity of natural operations under law—Catastrophes abolished—The succession of life on the globe, and that of the tertiary ages explained—The antiquity of man and of the great ice age established 307 [Illustration] HEROES OF SCIENCE. [Illustration] CHAPTER I. THE INFANCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCIENCE OF PLANTS. Old fancies and notions about plants—Aristoteles, the first botanist—Theophrastus—Plinius—Dioscorides—Their lives, labours, and troubles.