279 



bounty we owe the u 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 judg- 

 ment 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 for- 

 get our origin, our very speech would bewray us ; for we use the 

 language which he taught us in the infancy of our science. If 

 we, by our united efforts, are chiseling the ornaments, and slowly 

 raising up the pinnacles of one of the temples of Nature, it was he 

 that 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 discoveries, have ever 

 held the first place of honour in the estimation of all who, in 

 aftertimes, have understood their works, or trodden in their steps. 

 It is upon this abiding principle that we have acted ; and in award- 

 ing our first prize to Mr. Smith, we believe that we have done 

 honour to our own body, and are sanctioned by the highest feel- 

 ings which bind societies together. 



I think it a high privilege to fill this Chair, on an occasion when 

 we are met, not coldly to deliberate on the balance of conflicting 

 claims ; in which, after all, we might go wrong, and give the prize 

 to one man by injustice to another ; but to perform a sacred duty 

 where there is no room for doubt or error, and to record an act of 

 public gratitude, in which the judgment and the feelings are united. 



Gentlemen, I will detain you no longer : Mr. Smith is now pre- 

 sent, and though become grey in the service of science, you will re- 

 joice to see that he still has the lineaments of vigorous health ; and 

 I cannot refrain, before I sit down, from expressing a fervent hope 

 (in which you all will join me), that God may long preserve that 

 life he has employed so much to his own honour, and the advan- 

 tage of his country. 



The President then presented, in the name of the Society, a purse 

 of twenty guineas to Mr. Smith, being a portion of the proceeds of 

 the Wollaston Fund ; and promised to forward to him the first gold 

 medal struck from the die above mentioned. Mr. Smith, in a 

 short and manly speech, returned thanks for the honour conferred 

 upon him ; expressed his anxiety to be still a useful servant of the 

 public as a practical geologist ; and, finally, presented to the Society 

 some documents referred to in the President's address*. 



It was then proposed by Dr. Fitton, and seconded by George 



* Various papers detailing the history of Mr. Smith's researches will be 

 found Mi the former series of the Philosophical Magazine ; in vol. xxxv. 

 p. 113, vol. xlii. p. 249, vol. liii. p. 112; &c. 



