280 Geological Society. 



intended to illustrate his other works lastly, of his twenty county 

 maps, the result of incredible labour, and admirable for many of 

 their details j and of a value known to every English geologist who 

 has laboured in the field. 



I for one can speak with gratitude of the practical lessons I have 

 received from Mr. Smith : it was by tracking his footsteps, with 

 his maps in my hand, through Wiltshire and the neighbouring coun- 

 ties, where he had trodden nearly thirty years before, that I. first 

 learnt the subdivisions of our oolitic series, and apprehended the 

 meaning of those arbitrary and somewhat uncouth terms, which we 

 derive from him as our master, which have long become engrafted 

 into the conventional language of English geologists, and, through 

 their influence, have been, in part, also adopted by the naturalists 

 of the Continent. 



After such a statement, Gentlemen, I have a right to speak 

 boldly, and to demand your approbation of the Council's award 

 I could almost dare to wish, that stern lover of truth, to whose 

 bounty we owe the " Donation Fund" that dark eye, before the 

 glance of which all false pretensions withered, were once more 

 amongst us. And if it be denied us to hope, that a spirit like 

 that of Wollaston should often be embodied on the earth, I would 

 appeal to those intelligent men who form the strength and ornament 

 of this Society, whether there was any place for doubt or hesitation? 

 whether we were not compelled, by every motive which the judg- 

 ment can approve, and the heart can sanction, to perform this act of 

 filial duty, before we thought of the claims of any other man, and 

 to place our first honour on the brow of the Father of English 

 Geology. 



If, in the pride of our present strength, we were disposed to for- 

 get our origin, our very speech would bewray us ; for we use the 

 language which he taught us in the infancy of our science. If 

 we, by our united efforts, are chiseling the ornaments, and slowly 

 raising up the pinnacles of one of the temples of Nature, it was he 

 that gave the plan, and laid the foundations, and erected a portion 

 of the solid walls, by the unassisted labour of his hands. 



The men who have led the way in useful discoveries, have ever 

 held the first place of honour in the estimation of all who, in 

 aftertimes, have understood their works, or trodden in their steps. 

 It is upon this abiding principle that we have acted ; and in award- 

 ing our first prize to Mr. Smith, we believe that we have done 

 honour to our own body, and are sanctioned by the highest feel- 

 ings which bind societies together. 



I think it a high privilege to have had the honour of filling this 

 chair, on an occasion when we are met, not coldly to deliberate 

 on the balance of conflicting claims ; in which, after all, we might 

 go wrong, and give the prize to one man by injustice to another; 

 but to perform a sacred duty where there is no room for doubt or 

 error, and to record an act of public gratitude, in which the judg- 

 ment and the feelings are united. 



Gentlemen, 



