Concerning Quotes - page 14
Turtles, he adds, and such large ammonites as are found in Portland, seem to have been the productions of the seas of hotter countries, and it is necessary to suppose that England once lay under the sea within the torrid zone! To explain this and similar phenomena, he indulges in a variety of speculations concerning changes in the position of the axis of the earth's rotation, a shifting of the earth's center of gravity, 'analogous to the revolutions of the magnetic pole,' &c. None of these conjectures, however, are proposed dogmatically, but rather in the hope of promoting fresh inquiries and experiments.
Charles Lyell
Most Holy Father, there are many who, on bringing their feeble judgment to bear on what is written concerning the great achievements of the Romans - the feats of arms, the city of Rome and the wondrous skill shown in the opulence, ornamentation and grandeur of their buildings - have come to the conclusion that these achievements are more likely to be fables than facts. I, however, have always seen - and still do see -things differently. For, bearing in mind the divine quality of the ancients' minds as revealed in the remains still to be seen among the ruins of Rome, I do not find it unreasonable to believe that much of what we consider impossible seemed, to them, exceedingly simple.
Raphael