For a family as steeped in the Church as the Lucys this book must have been a great shock. Actually none of it was truly original but Lyell did pull together three streams of contemporary thought that swept away the Bible’s explanation of the origin of man in the Garden of Eden. Lyell discusses the age of the human race based on fossil evidence, the existence of Ice Ages and evolution through Natural Selection. It sold amazingly well being reprinted three times in its first year. Our copy is from the third edition in 1863 which Lyell had revised and is signed Tina Lucy. But it seemed to have remained unread as many of the pages are uncut.