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.
We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.
Paris is the fountain-head of European civilisation, as Gomukhi is of the Ganga.
We want to achieve a new and better order of society: in this new and better society there must be neither rich nor poor; all will have to work. Not a handful of rich people, but all the working people must enjoy the fruits of their common labour. Machines and other improvements must serve to ease the work of all and not to enable a few to grow rich at the expense of millions and tens of millions of people. This new and better society is called socialist society.
So it is clear that the search for what is just is a search for the mean; for the law is the mean.
My friend wants to get moving and so do I,' Eddie said. 'We've got miles to go yet.' I know that. It's on your face, son. Like a scar.' Eddie was fascinated by the idea of duty and ka as something that left a mark, something that might look like decoration to one eye and disfigurement to another. Outside, thunder cracked and lightning flashed.
If a lion could talk, we could not understand him.
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