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services by Dr. Mantell and by Baron Cuvier, and by the public voice in the case of the publications of Sir E. Home. But the highest acknowledgment of the productive labours of Mr. Clift, are to be witnessed in the present efficient condition of the great museum itself, which is a lasting monument of the integrity, and of the activity, as well as the honesty of his stewardship.
It is in no vein of flattery that I advert to a remarkable resemblance both in person and in character between John Hunter and Mr. Clift. Both exhibited the same ardour and devotion to the cause of physiological science, employing however, the force of minds of different calibre; and both exhibited the same single-mindedness.
The personal resemblance between the two, has been the theme of frequent observation, and has elicited the most ill-founded suspicion of a real relationship. This observation having been on one occasion made to Mr. Clift, such was his veneration for Mr. Hunter, that he replied, “He should only be too happy were its truth confirmed.”
This day is also the anniversary of the birth of both Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Clift.
Mr. Clift retired from the College in the year 1842, on an increased salary of £400 per annum. He died on the 20th of last June, having survived his wife, to whom he had been united, and tenderly attached, more than fifty years, a period of six weeks only. His only daughter is married to his successor, in whose expressive words, inscribed on his tomb by his son-in-law, I shall conclude this hasty and imperfect sketch of Mr. Clift:—“He carried a child-like simplicity and single-mindedness to the close of a long, and honoured career.”
