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Address to the Geological Society, delivered on the Evening of the 15th 

 of February 1833, by Roderick Impev Murcitison, Esq. F.R.S. 

 L.S. $c, on retiring from the President's Chair. 



Gentlemen, 



Twenty-five years only have elapsed since this Society was first 

 formed under the auspices of Mr. Greenough and a few zealous 

 naturalists. — In the year 1826, when your Charter was obtained, the 

 number of Members had already reached 476, and since that period 

 a still more rapid increase has taken place, which has now swelled our 

 list to 694. This remarkable yet steady augmentation of our forces 

 is the best proof of the estimation in which your labours are held; 

 and it further shows, that the pursuits of the geologist are no longer 

 viewed as purely speculative, but are at length considered as essen- 

 tially connected with the development of the national resources. 



The past Session has been fatally marked by the decease of three 

 distinguished geologists. 



The Rev. Benjamin Richardson, of Farley near Bath, one of the 

 earliest Members of this Society, was a man of great singleness of 

 character and generosity of disposition, and, as a cultivator of science, 

 he was distinguished by the extent of his knowledge, — not drawn 

 from books, but from an examination of Nature in her own domains. 

 In the pursuit of geology he was well instructed from his own re- 

 searches ; but he was ever delighted to tell that he owed his first 

 clear ideas of the subject to William Smith ; and his latter days were 

 gladdened by knowing that the merits of his friend had been ac- 

 knowledged by this Society. To his generosity of disposition our 

 museum, and those of many local institutions, are deeply indebted. 

 He collected only that he might give away; and, regardless of all 

 personal fame, he never failed, when a discovery was made, to call 

 around him those who could profit by it. Thus, though he was never 

 seen among us, and though his name was rarely heard, he was steadily 

 labouring in our cause, and silently, but effectually, urging it on. 



I have next the painful duty to record the death of the venerable 

 Sir James Hall, one of that bright constellation of philosophers which 

 arose in Scotland towards the end of the last century. 



The intimate friend of Hutton and of Playfair, he eagerly imbibed 

 the opinions of these celebrated men, and satisfied himself of the 

 leading truths in the Huttonian theory by extended and patient ex- 

 aminations of geological phenomena, — not merely amongst the British 

 Isles, but in the Alps, in Italy, and in Sicily. The result of these 

 observations was communicated in a series of Memoirs read before 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which distinguished body he was 

 for many years the President. In alluding to these Memoirs, I at 

 once remind you how materially he assisted in demonstrating that a 

 certain class of granitic veins had been injected into the overlying 

 deposits posterior to their consolidation. He endeavoured to explain 



