

Memoir of William Maclure. 7 



During the year 1817 Mr. Maclure chiefly occupied himself in 

 the publication of his Geology in a separate volume ; after which 

 he devoted himself with assiduity to the interests of the Acade- 

 my. Previous to the year 1819 he had already presented the in- 

 stitution with the larger part of the fine library he had collected 

 in Europe, embracing nearly fifteen hundred volumes ; among 

 which were six hundred quartos and one hundred and forty-six 

 folios on natural history, antiquities, the fine arts, voyages and 

 travels. The value of these acquisitions was greatly enhanced 

 by the fact that they were possessed by no other institution on 

 this side of the Atlantic. The Academy therefore derived from 

 this source a prosperity and permanence which, under other cir- 

 cumstances, must have been extremely slow and uncertain ; while 

 science at the same time received an impulse which has never fal- 

 tered, and which has been subsequently imparted to every section 

 of our country.* 



In the winter of 1816-17 Mr. Maclure visited the West Indies, 

 for the purpose of ascertaining by personal observation, the geol- 

 ogy of that chain of islands known as the Antilles. With this 

 view he visited and examined nearly twenty of these islands, in 

 the Caribbean Sea, from Barbadoes to Santa Cruz and St. Thomas 

 inclusive. He bestowed especial attention on those portions of 

 the series which are of volcanic origin, of which the Grenadines 

 form the southern and Saba the northern end of the chain. The > 

 results of this voyage of observation, in which he was accompa- 

 nied by his friend Mr. Lesueur, were submitted to the Academy 

 on the 28th of October, 1817, and soon afterwards published in 

 the Society's Journal. f 



In 1819 Mr. Maclure's active mind was again directed to Eu- 

 rope. Embarking at New York he went direct to France, and 

 not long afterwards to Spain. He was induced to visit the latter 

 country on account of the liberal constitution promulgated by the 

 Cortes, which promised a comparatively free government to a 

 country long oppressed by every species of bondage. His plan 

 w as to establish a great agricultural school, in which physical la- 

 bor should be combined with moral and intellectual culture. His 

 views were almost exclusively directed to the lower and conse- 

 quently uneducated classes, whom he hoped to elevate above the 



# Notice of the Academy of Natural Sciences, p. 13. 

 t Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Vol. I 



