Amidst the vicissitudes of the earth's surface, species cannot be immortal, but must perish, one after another, like the individuals which compose them. There is no possibility of escaping from this conclusion.
Interpretation
Species, like individuals, inevitably face extinction due to the changing conditions of the Earth.
This quote by Charles Lyell emphasizes the transitory nature of life on Earth, highlighting how species are subject to the same fate as individual organisms: mortality. It speaks to the inevitability of extinction and the constant evolution and change of the planet, making it clear that no species can escape this fate, regardless of its adaptability or resilience.
In practice
In a lecture on evolution, one might use this quote to illustrate the concept of natural selection and extinction.
When the aggregate amount of solid matter transported by rivers in a given number of centuries from a large continent, shall be reduced to arithmetical computation, the result will appear most astonishing to those...not in the habit of reflecting how many of the mightiest of operations in nature are effected insensibly, without noise or disorder.
Never was there a dogma more calculated to foster indolence, and to blunt the keen edge of curiosity, than the assumption of the discordance between the former and the existing causes of change.
The question now at issue, whether the living species are connected with the extinct by a common bond of descent, will best be cleared up by devoting ourselves to the study of the actual state of the living world, and to those monuments of the past in which the relics of the animate creation of former ages are best preserved and least mutilated by the hand of time.
Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will.
He that will maintain that man's free will is able to do or work anything in spiritual cases, be they never so small, denies Christ.
What else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I would do the nightingale's part; if I were a swan, I would do as a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God. This is my work. I do it, nor will I desert my post, so long as I am allowed to keep it. And I ask you to join me in this same song.
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
When men abandon reason, physical force becomes their only means of dealing with one another and of settling disagreements.
Laziness has become the chief characteristic of journalism, displacing incompetence.
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