278 



One quotation more, and I have done. The Reverend J. Town- 

 send of Pewsey, in the first volume of a work published in 1813 

 (entitled " The Character of Moses established for Veracity .as an 

 Historian"), described at considerable length the secondary strata 

 of England ; and after referring nearly the whole of his information 

 to Mr. Smith, adds the following words : — " The discoveries of this 

 skilful engineer have been of vast importance to geology, and will 

 be of infinite value to the nation. To a strong understanding, a 

 retentive memory, indefatigable ardour, and a more than common 

 sagacity, this extraordinary man unites a perfect contempt for 

 money, when compared with science. Had he kept his discoveries 

 to himself, he might have accumulated wealth ; but with unparal- 

 leled disinterestedness of mind, he scorned concealment, and made 

 known his discoveries to every one who wished for information. It 

 is now eleven years since he conducted the Author in his examina- 

 tion of the strata which are laid bare in the immediate vicinity of 

 Bath: and subsequent excursions in the stratified and calcareous por- 

 tions of our island have confirmed the information thus obtained." 



Knowledge thus orally communicated, gradually and insensibly 

 became a part of the public stock ; and beyond doubt " produced 

 a very important, though unobserved effect upon the labours of all 

 succeeding inquirers, who have been, perhaps unconsciously, but 

 not less really, indebted to Mr. Smith for very essential assistance 

 in their progress." — Edinburgh Review, vol. xxix. p. 313. 



On what Mr. Smith has done since 1813, it is needless for me to 

 dwell, as it is now a matter of public notoriety. But I may be par- 

 doned for reminding you of his great geological map of England, pub- 

 lished in 1815, which forms one of the decorations of this room — of a 

 work accompanied by plates (published by Mr. Sowerby, in numbers, 

 commencing, I believe, in 1816), entitled " Strata identified by 

 their Fossils"— of a stratigraphical system, published in 1817, spe- 

 cially designed as an accompaniment to his collection of fossils 

 purchased by the Treasury, and deposited in the British Museum — 

 of his instructive series of sections, published at various times, and 

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

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

 their details ; 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 



