“Floods and volcanic eruptions, the agency of water and fire, are the chief instruments of devastation on our globe. …it scarcely requires the passion for the marvelous”

— Charles Lyell , book Principles of Geology

Chpt.2, p. 9
Principles of Geology (1832), Vol. 1
Context: It is probable that the doctrine of successive destructions and renovations of the world merely received corroboration from such proofs; and that it was originally handed down, like the religious dogmas of most nations, from a ruder state of society. The true source of the system must be sought for in the exaggerated traditions of those partial, but often dreadful catastrophes, which are sometimes occasioned by various combinations of natural causes. Floods and volcanic eruptions, the agency of water and fire, are the chief instruments of devastation on our globe.... it scarcely requires the passion for the marvelous, so characteristic of rude and half-civilized nations, still less the exuberant imagination of eastern writers, to augment them into general cataclysms and conflagrations.

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Charles Lyell 103

British lawyer and geologist 1797–1875

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“Floods and volcanic eruptions, the agency of water and fire, are the chief instruments of devastation on our globe. …it scarcely requires the passion for the marvelous”

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Charles Lyell 103

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