万物简史 第85期:敲石头的人们(7)

 The members met twice a month from November until June, when virtually all of them went off to spend the summer doing fieldwork. These weren't people with a pecuniary¹ interest in minerals, you understand, or even academics for the most part, but simply gentlemen with the wealth and time to indulge a hobby at a more or less professional level. By 1830, there were 745 of them, and the world would never see the like again.

从11月到次年6月，会员每月碰头两次，因为到这个时候，实际上所有的人都已出门，整个夏天在做野外工作。你要知道，这些人出去找矿石不是为了挣钱，在大多数情况下甚至也不是学者。它不过是既有钱又有时间的绅士在不大专业的层面上从事的一种爱好。到1830年，已经发展到745名会员，世界上再也不会出现那种情况。

It is hard to imagine now, but geology excited the nineteenth century—positively gripped it—in a way that no science ever had before or would again. In 1839, when Roderick Murchison published The Silurian System, a plump and ponderous² study of a type of rock called greywacke, it was an instant bestseller, racing³ through four editions, even though it cost eight guineas a copy and was, in true Huttonian style, unreadable. (As even a Murchison supporter conceded, it had "a total want of literary attractiveness.") And when, in 1841, the great Charles Lyell traveled to America to give a series of lectures in Boston, sellout audiences of three thousand at a time packed into the Lowell Institute to hear his tranquilizing descriptions of marine⁴ zeolites and seismic⁵ perturbations in Campania.

这种情形在现在是难以想像的，但地质学激活了19世纪的人--完全抓住了他们的注意力--这是任何科学以前没有过，或许将来也不会有的情况。1839年，罗德里克·默奇森出版了《志留纪体系》，一本又厚又重的书，研究一种名叫杂砂岩的岩石。它顿时成为一本畅销书，很快出了4版，虽然一册要卖到8个几尼，而且具有真正的赫顿风格，即毫无可读性。（连默奇森的支持者也承认，它"毫无文学作品的魅力"。）而当伟大的查尔斯·莱尔于1841年去美国，在波士顿开设一系列讲座的时候，每次都有3000名听众挤进洛韦尔学院，静静地听他描述海洋沸石和地震在坎帕尼亚引起的震动。

1 pecuniary   

adj.金钱的；金钱上的

参考例句：

• She denies obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.她否认通过欺骗手段获得经济利益。
• She is so independent that she refused all pecuniary aid.她很独立，所以拒绝一切金钱上的资助。

2 ponderous   

adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的

参考例句：

• His steps were heavy and ponderous.他的步伐沉重缓慢。
• It was easy to underestimate him because of his occasionally ponderous manner.由于他偶尔现出的沉闷的姿态，很容易使人小看了他。

3 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

4 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

5 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。