萬物簡史 第79期:敲石頭的人們(11)

Even when conducting serious science his mannerwas generally singular. Once Mrs. Buckland foundherself being shaken awake in the middle of thenight, her husband crying in excitement: "My dear, Ibelieve that Cheirotherium's footsteps areundoubtedly testudinal." Together they hurried tothe kitchen in their nightclothes. Mrs. Bucklandmade a flour paste, which she spread across thetable, while the Reverend Buckland fetched thefamily tortoise.

即使在從事嚴(yán)肅的科學(xué)活動(dòng)的時(shí)候，他的方式一般來說也是怪怪的。有一次，巴克蘭半夜里于興奮之中把他的太太推醒，大叫一聲："天哪，我認(rèn)為，化石上的腳印肯定是烏龜?shù)哪_印。"夫妻倆穿著睡衣急匆匆地來到廚房。巴克蘭太太和了面團(tuán)，鋪在那張桌上，巴克蘭牧師拿來家里養(yǎng)的烏龜。

Plunking it onto the paste, they goaded it forward and discovered to their delight that itsfootprints did indeed match those of the fossil Buckland had been studying. Charles Darwinthought Buckland a buffoon—that was the word he used—but Lyell appeared to find himinspiring and liked him well enough to go touring with him in Scotland in 1824. It was soonafter this trip that Lyell decided to abandon a career in law and devote himself to geology full-time.

他們把烏龜往面團(tuán)上一扔，趕著它往前走。他們高興地發(fā)現(xiàn)，它的腳印果然和巴克蘭一直在研究的化石上的腳印完全一致。查爾斯·達(dá)爾文認(rèn)為巴克蘭是個(gè)小丑--這是他的原話--而萊爾卻似乎覺得他對自己很有啟發(fā)，還很喜歡他，1824年和他一塊兒去了蘇格蘭。就是在那次蘇格蘭之行以后，萊爾決定放棄律師職業(yè)，把全部時(shí)間投入了地質(zhì)學(xué)。

Lyell was extremely shortsighted and went through most of his life with a pained squint,which gave him a troubled air. (Eventually he would lose his sight altogether.) His other slightpeculiarity was the habit, when distracted by thought, of taking up improbable positions onfurniture—lying across two chairs at once or "resting his head on the seat of a chair, whilestanding up" (to quote his friend Darwin).

萊爾近視得厲害，在一生的大部分時(shí)間里痛苦地瞇著眼睛，因此露出一副愁眉苦臉的樣子。(最后，他完全喪失了視力。)他還有一個(gè)有點(diǎn)古怪的地方，當(dāng)他想得出神的時(shí)候，他會(huì)在家具上擺出難以想像的姿勢--要么橫在兩張椅子上，要么(用他的朋友達(dá)爾文的話來說)"頭枕著椅子面，身體伸得筆直"。

Often when lost in thought he would slink so low in a chair that his buttocks would all but touchthe floor. Lyell's only real job in life was as professor of geology at King's College in London from1831 to 1833. It was around this time that he produced The Principles of Geology, published inthree volumes between 1830 and 1833, which in many ways consolidated and elaborated uponthe thoughts first voiced by Hutton a generation earlier. (Although Lyell never read Hutton inthe original, he was a keen student of Playfair's reworked version.)

一旦陷入沉思，他往往會(huì)慢慢地從椅子上滑下來，臀部幾乎貼著地板。萊爾一生中的惟一工作是在1831-1833年期間當(dāng)過倫敦大學(xué)國王學(xué)院的地質(zhì)學(xué)教授。就是在這段時(shí)間里，他寫出了《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》，并在1831-1833年期間分3卷出版。這部書在許多方面鞏固和闡述了一代人之前由赫頓首先提出的見解。(雖然萊爾從來沒有讀過赫頓作品的原文，但他懷著濃厚的興趣研究過普萊費(fèi)爾的改寫本。)