PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING. 
105 
were framed and fashioned by the same Almighty hand, and 
were designed and contrived by the same Almighty mind. 
Gentlemen, to this great and good man not only are the sciences 
of natural history profoundly indebted, but the higher science 
of morals also owes a debt of-deep and everlasting obligation, 
for that he has proved to demonstration the high and solemn 
truth to which I have alluded, viz.—the unity and universal 
goodness of the great Creator. Of this great man, so lately torn 
away from us by the mysterious and incomprehensible counsels 
of the Almighty, we now lament the loss; in the vigour of his 
mind, and almost in the fulness of his strength, at the age of sixty- 
three, he has been suddenly summoned to the grave, and the tears 
of Europe have not yet ceased to stream over his funeral. The 
gratitude of the great nation to whose philosophic fame his ge¬ 
nius has added so bright a wreath, has already displayed itself 
by a liberal provision for his family, and has fixed his widow, 
during the remainder of her mortal life, in that honoured and 
well-known mansion, in the Jardin des Plantes, which during a 
quarter of a century has ever been open, in noble and friendly 
hospitality, to every son of Science assembled at Paris from 
every nation under heaven. The French nation has placed 
her there, a brief and perishable monument of their gratitude: 
they have resolved also that a splendid and more lasting monu¬ 
ment shall be raised to her immortal husband, and have invited 
the whole philosophical world to partake in the honour of con¬ 
tributing to its erection. He has raised to himself a monument 
‘sere perennius,’ a monument which will endure even when the 
pyramids are crumbled into dust;—but this does not absolve 
ourselves from the pleasing and pious duty of contributing our 
humble share to that monument of marble which a grateful na¬ 
tion and a grateful world are about to consecrate to his memory. 
—Gentlemen, I fear my feelings of respect, and love, and gra¬ 
titude, have transported me beyond the limits which the task 
I have undertaken should impose on me; still I cannot but re¬ 
joice in the opportunity which this august assembly affords of 
inviting you to partake in this great and glorious work, and thus 
publicly to record your gratitude to that immortal man, whose 
friendship I have ever counted among the most distinguished 
honours of my life, and whose genius will, even by those who 
have not enjoyed this high and enviable privilege, be ever 
followed as their guide in the paths of science, so long as 
science shall be cultivated, or virtue venerated upon earth.” 
—Returning to the subject of the Lecture, Dr. Buckland 
stated, that this monstrous animal, the Megatherium, has been 
brought to England by Woodbine Parish, Esq., His Majesty’s 
