'Back in Aix, his discussion circle had included not only Émile Zola, on a fast track to celebrity, but a formidable young scientist called Antoine-Fortuné Marion. It was Marion who alerted the group to the recent revolutions in thought advanced by Lyell and Darwin. Zola articulated their response in 1865: ‘I see in the study of geology a new faith, a faith both philosophical and religious.’'

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n04/julian-bell/mass-equals-pigment