WILLIAM SMITH. 27 1 



bation of the councirs 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 judgment 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 forget our origin, our very 

 speech bewrays us : for we use the language which 

 he taught us in the infancy of our science. If we, 

 by our united efforts, are chiselling the ornaments 

 and slowly raising up the pinnacles of one of the 

 temples of nature, it was he who 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 dis- 

 coveries, have ever held the first place of honour 

 in the estimation of all who in after times have 

 understood their works or trodden in their steps. 

 It is upon this abiding principle that we have 



