Memoir oj William Maclure. 405 



though unobtrusive, he was inflexible — but mainly to that 

 frequent change of residence which is unfavourable to social 

 fellowship. Hence it is that of the thousands who are 

 familiar with his name in the annals of Science, comparatively 

 few can speak of him from personal knowledge. 



In person he was above the middle stature, and of a natu- 

 rally robust frame. His constitution was elastic, and capa- 

 ble of much endurance of privation and fatigue, which he 

 attributed chiefly to the undeviating simplicity of his diet. 

 His head was large, his forehead high and expanded, his 

 nose aquiline ; and his collective features were expressive of 

 that undisturbed serenity of mind which was a conspicuous 

 trait of his character. 



Those who knew him in early life, represent him to have 

 been remarkable for personal endowments ; a fact which 

 is evident in the full-length portrait now in possession of his 

 family, and which was painted upwards of forty years ago by 

 the celebrated Northcote. The lithographed likeness which 

 accompanies this memoir, is copied from a portrait taken by 

 Mr. Sully in 1824, at which period Mr. Maclure was about 

 sixty-three years of age. 



Such was William Maclure, whose long, active and useful 

 life is the subject of this brief and inadequate memorial. His 

 remains are entombed in a distant land, and even there the 

 spirit of affection is raising a tablet to his memory. But his 

 greater and more enduring monument, is the edifice within 

 whose walls we are now met to recount and perpetuate his 

 virtues. Wherever we turn our eyes we behold the proofs 

 of his talent, his zeal, his munificence. We see an Institu- 

 tion which, under his fostering care, has already attained the 

 manhood of Science, and is destined to connect his name 

 with those beautiful truths which formed the engrossing 

 subject of his thoughts. We see around us the collections 

 that were made with his own hands, vastly augmented, it is 

 true, by the zeal of those who have been stimulated by his 



