WILLIAM MACLIRE. 17 



the united efforts of these gentlemen, I need not 

 declare: for not only here, but wherever their fa- 

 vourite pursuits are loved and cultivated, their names 

 will be inseparably interwoven with the records and 

 the honours of science. 



During the year 1S17 Mr. Maclure chiefly occu- 

 pied himself in the publication of his Geology in a 

 separate volume : after which he devoted himself 

 with assiduity to the interests of the Academy. 

 Previous to the year 1S19 he had already presented 

 the institution with the larger part of the fine library 

 he had collected in Europe, embracing nearly fifteen 

 hundred volumes: among which were six hundred 

 quartos and one hundred and forty-six folios on Na- 

 tural History, Antiquities, the Fine Arts, Voyages 

 and Travels. "The value of these acquisitions was 

 greatly enhanced by the fact that they were possessed 

 by no other institution on this side of the Atlantic. 

 The Academy therefore derived from this source a 

 prosperity and permanence which, under other cir- 

 cumstances, must have been extremely slow and un- 

 certain: while Science at the same time received an 

 impulse which has never faltered, and w r hich has 

 been subsequently imparted to every section of our 

 country."* 



' > tfae Academy of Natural Srirnrr^, p. 19. 



3 



