Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/150

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112
BIOGRAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN

passed through many editions, the gist of his doctrines and discoveries may be found.

During the seventy-eight years that he lived on this mundane sphere, he published seventy-six memoirs or nearly one every year of his existence. Lyell was a philosopher in every respect, sound to the core, free from bias, a respecter of other men's opinions, although a critic where criticism was thought to be just. He was "the most philosophical and influential geologist that ever lived, and one of the very best of men."

Sir Charles Lyell received almost every honour which usually falls to scientific men from his own and other countries. He was a member of nearly every academy and scientific society in the world, and many degrees and medals were awarded to him.

During the later years of his life his sight, always weak, failed him altogether. Although very feeble, the actual cause of his death was a fall down the stairs of his house, 75 Harley Street, London, W. This took place on 22nd February 1875.

During his long life, as the late Dean Stanley said, "it was to him a solemn religious duty to be incessantly learning, constantly growing, fearlessly correcting his own mistakes, always ready to receive and reproduce from others that which he had not in himself."

Sir Charles Lyell was buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey, where the well-known gravestone of fossil marble