president's address. 39 



ship. His rapid progress was encouraging, and may be considered 

 as one of the sure marks of an increasing public regard for 

 intellectual merit. I recollect being present at a meeting of the 

 Geological Society of London, when he spoke for the first time, 

 prior to his being appointed to the office of Curator. A few sen- 

 tences were expressed with so much clearness, and with such a 

 natural and winning eloquence, that they seemed at once to 

 indicate a marked superiority of mind, and to promise the ma- 

 turity which, short as his life has been, was fully attained. He 

 became President of that Society, and, it was hoped, was about 

 to proceed in a long career of usefulness in Edinburgh. He had 

 already taken active measures for greatly extending, in that 

 University, the means of public instruction, and extended oppor- 

 tunities of observing the contents of Museums ; and I feel satisfied 

 that, in expressing sincere regret for his loss, I express the feeling 

 of every student and every lover of Natural History. 



Of Sir Henry de la Beche, I am desirous to make some mention 

 at greater length, inasmuch as his efforts were constantly and 

 zealously bestowed on objects which are of peculiar interest to 

 this district; and a short review of them may be useful now, 

 when attention is directed to the formation of Mining Schools, of 

 public Museums, and to improved education generally. Twenty- 

 five years have elapsed since Sir Henry, then Mr. de la Beche, 

 dreWy litliographed, and published his " Sections and Views 

 Hlustrative of Geological Phenomena." Of that work, strange 

 to say, only two hundred copies were printed. In a conversation 

 which I had with him only a few weeks before his death, this 

 was adverted to ; and it is, I believe, strictly correct to say, that 

 this collection of sections and views has been, not only one of the 

 earliest, but one of the very best and clearest of the numerous 

 illustrations of Geology which have appeared in the last quarter 

 of a century. To Sir Henry de la Beche belongs the great honour 

 of having founded what has now become a national establish- 

 ment — the Museum of Practical Geology; and one arrangement 

 which he specially provided in that institution merits particular 

 notice — viz., the delivery of lectures to working men. Those who 

 had an opportunity of knowing, as I did, the almost insuperable 



