124 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCKLAND. 
[CH. V. 
“ some notices from correspondents respecting the character 
and proceedings of the present meeting of scientific men 
at Oxford,” and it goes on to give its reasons for thinking 
that such meetings are useless. 
The proceedings opened in the Sheldonian Theatre by 
the President requesting Mr. Murchison to present to the 
“ Father of English Geology,” Mr. William Smith, 1 the 
Wollaston Medal, awarded to him by the Geological 
Society. The death of the great Cuvier, which had 
recently occurred on May 13th, 1832, called forth from 
the President an eloquent and graceful tribute. 
“ I cannot,” he said, “ utter the name of Cuvier without 
being at once arrested and overwhelmed bv recollections 
of mortality, melancholy and painful. We have at this 
moment to deplore, in common with the whole philosophic 
world, the loss of the greatest naturalist, and one of the 
greatest philosophers, that have arisen in distant ages to 
enlighten and improve mankind. The names of Aristotle 
and Pliny and Cuvier will go down together through every 
age in which natural science and natural history, in which 
philosophic talent and learning, and everything which, next 
to religion and morality, give dignity and exaltation to 
the character of man, shall be respected on earth. It was 
the genius of Cuvier that first established the perfect 
method after which every succeeding naturalist will model 
his researches. He has shown that the frame and 
mechanism of every animal present an uniformity of design 
and a simplicity of purpose which prove to demonstration 
that every individual, not only of the existing species, but 
of those numerous and still more curious species which 
1 According to Professor Phillips, in the Life of his uncle, it was at 
Dr. Buckland’s suggestion that a memorial tablet to William Smith was 
placed in All Saints’ Church, Northampton, by a subscription among 
geologists. 
