William Buckland

thumb|Thus the great drama of universal life is perpetually sustained; and though the individual actors undergo continual change, the same parts are ever filled by another and another generation; renewing the face of the earth, and the bosom of the deep, with endless successions of life and happiness. Dr. William Buckland (12 March, 1784 – 14 August, 1856) was an English geologist, paleontologist and Dean of Westminster, who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur. He was a proponent of Old Earth creationism, who later became convinced of Louis Agassiz' glaciation theory. Quotes Geology holds the keys of one of the kingdoms of nature; and it cannot be said that a science which extends our Knowledge, and by consequence our Power, over a third part of nature, holds a low place among intellectual employments. As quoted in A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies (1825) by Granville Penn, p. 8 Life to each individual is a scene of continued feasting in a region of plenty; and when unexpected death arrests its course, it repays with small interest the large debt which it has contracted to the common fund of animal nutrition, from whence the materials of its body have been derived. Thus the great drama of universal life is perpetually sustained; and though the individual actors undergo continual change, the same parts are filled by another and another generation; renewing the face of the earth and the bosom of the deep with endless successions of life and happiness. Geology and Mineralogy Considered with Reference to Natural Theology (1841), p. 109 Geology has shared the fate of other infant sciences, in being for a while considered hostile to revealed religion; so like them, when fully understood, it will be found a potent and consistent auxiliary to it, exalting our conviction of the Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness of the Creator. As quoted in The Age of the World : Moses to Darwin (1959) by Francis C. Haber, p. 221 The taste of mole was the most repulsive I knew until I tasted a bluebottle [fly]. As quoted in The Violinist's Thumb 2012 by Sam Kean, p. 204 Dubious I have eaten many strange things, but have never eaten the heart of a king. As quoted in The Violinist's Thumb 2012 by Sam Kean, p. 233 External links Category:1784 births Category:1856 deaths Category:University of Oxford faculty Category:Geologists from England Category:Paleontologists from England Category:Science authors Category:Anglicans from the United Kingdom Category:University of Oxford alumni Category:Fellows of the Royal Society