194 Scientifie Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
1833, so that several original members still survive; but he was 
the Nestor of Irish geology. We have spoken of our common 
purpose on the present occasion; it is not to join together in a 
lament, in an elegiac celebration of him who belonged to us both; 
that were surely most inappropriate. How dare we repine at 
the removal of him who was spared to us for a quarter of a cen- 
tury beyond the proverbial three score years and ten? In his 
95th year he was moving among the third generation of his 
contemporaries 
To 8 Hen ctw pev yeveat pepoTwr ayOpwrwr 
"Ep bial’, ot 6c rpdaber ipa reaper HO eyévorrTo 
"How év iyaben, pera Ce TpiTarowoly civaccer® 
Yes dvaccey, for his career was assuredly one of masterful activity 
and triumphant accomplishment. 
We cannot now go into the general history of his long life and 
important labours ; this can be found elsewhere; we shall confine 
ourselves to a sketch of his geological work, and this will best 
be made in connexion with the history of his Geological Map of 
Treland. 
This is a subject not only interesting in itself to us as 
Irish geologists, but it is profitable in various ways. It must 
always be instructive to know something of the progress of the 
work of such a man, and of his own corrections and improvements 
of his work. Moreover, it is good to ke reminded that our present 
knowledge of the general geological structure of our island is by 
no means intuitive. When it is laid out before us on a map so 
that we can take it in almost at a glance, and it bas become so 
familiar that we can hardly imagine it otherwise, we are apt to 
forget the toil that has been undergone, and the difficulties and 
obscurities that have been encountered by those who have prepared 
the way for us. Itis good to beaz in mind that only last September 
one was still with us who was the first geologist who ever explored 
certain districts of our island. It is salutary to be reminded that 
the Muse of geology (like, indeed, all her sisters of the natural 
and physical sciences) is, notwithstanding her great progress and 
acquirements, still only an “ dipa®ye,”’ one who has but lately 
come to her learning, and that it behoves her to take heed that 
she be not as “ imsolens” as persons in her condition are sometimes 
tempted to be. 
