萬(wàn)物簡(jiǎn)史 第80期:敲石頭的人們(12)

Between Hutton's day and Lyell's there arose a newgeological controversy, which largely superseded,but is often confused with, the old Neptunian-Plutonian dispute. The new battle became anargument between catastrophism anduniformitarianism—unattractive terms for animportant and very long-running dispute.

在赫頓時(shí)代和萊爾時(shí)代之間，地質(zhì)學(xué)界發(fā)生了一場(chǎng)新的爭(zhēng)論。它在很大程度上取代了過(guò)去的水成論與火成論之爭(zhēng)，而又往往交混在一起。新的戰(zhàn)斗成為災(zāi)變論和均變論之爭(zhēng)。給一場(chǎng)重要而又曠日持久的爭(zhēng)論起這樣的名字，似乎有點(diǎn)兒不夠味兒。

Catastrophists, as you might expect from the name, believed that the Earth was shaped byabrupt cataclysmic events—floods principally, which is why catastrophism and neptunism areoften wrongly bundled together. Catastrophism was particularly comforting to clerics likeBuckland because it allowed them to incorporate the biblical flood of Noah into seriousscientific discussions. Uniformitarians by contrast believed that changes on Earth were gradualand that nearly all Earth processes happened slowly, over immense spans of time. Hutton wasmuch more the father of the notion than Lyell, but it was Lyell most people read, and so hebecame in most people's minds, then and now, the father of modern geological thought.

災(zāi)變論者——顧名思義——認(rèn)為，地球是由突發(fā)的災(zāi)難性事件形成的——主要是洪水。這就是人們常常把災(zāi)變論和水成論互相混淆的原因。災(zāi)變論尤其迎合巴克蘭這樣的教士的心理，這樣他們可以把《圣經(jīng)》里諾亞時(shí)代的洪水納入嚴(yán)肅的科學(xué)討論。均變論者恰恰相反，認(rèn)為地球上的變化是逐漸形成的，幾乎所有的地質(zhì)變化過(guò)程都是緩慢的，都要經(jīng)歷漫長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間。最先提出這種見(jiàn)解的與其說(shuō)是萊爾，不如說(shuō)是赫頓，但大多數(shù)人讀的是萊爾的作品，因此在大多數(shù)人的腦海里，無(wú)論是當(dāng)時(shí)還是現(xiàn)在，他成了近代地質(zhì)學(xué)之父。

Lyell believed that the Earth's shifts were uniform and steady—that everything that had everhappened in the past could be explained by events still going on today. Lyell and his adherentsdidn't just disdain catastrophism, they detested it. Catastrophists believed that extinctionswere part of a series in which animals were repeatedly wiped out and replaced with new sets—abelief that the naturalist T. H. Huxley mockingly likened to "a succession of rubbers of whist, atthe end of which the players upset the table and called for a new pack." It was too convenienta way to explain the unknown. "Never was there a dogma more calculated to fosterindolence, and to blunt the keen edge of curiosity," sniffed Lyell.

萊爾認(rèn)為，地球的變遷是一貫的，緩慢的--過(guò)去已經(jīng)發(fā)生過(guò)的一切都可以用今天仍在發(fā)生的事情來(lái)解釋。萊爾和他的信徒們不但瞧不起災(zāi)變論，而且對(duì)它深?lèi)和唇^。災(zāi)變論者認(rèn)為，絕種是一系列過(guò)程的組成部分，在此過(guò)程中，動(dòng)物不斷滅亡，被新的動(dòng)物取而代之--博物學(xué)家T.H.赫胥黎把這種看法挖苦地比做是"惠斯特牌戲里的一連串勝局，到了最后，打牌的人推翻桌子，要求換一副新牌"。以這種方法來(lái)解釋未知的事物未免過(guò)于俗套。“從來(lái)沒(méi)有見(jiàn)過(guò)比這樣的一種教條更蓄意助長(zhǎng)懶漢精神，更削弱人們的好奇心的了。”萊爾嗤之以鼻地說(shuō)。