m 



desire no higher honour, and for which I hope that my conduct 

 will thank you hetter than my words. 



And yet, Gentlemen, it is to me a painful thought, that the 

 opportunity for your so soon bestowing this mark of confidence 

 and esteem has arisen out of the deaths, too rapidly succeeding 

 each other, of the two last Presidents of our body, who, while they 

 are on public grounds deplored, and for their private worth wert 

 honoured and beloved by all of us, must ever be remembered by 

 me with peculiar love and honour : — Brinkley, who introduced me to 

 your notice, by laying on your table long ago my first mathematical 

 paper; and Lloyd, whose works, addressed to the University of Dub- 

 lin, first opened to me that new world of mind, the application of 

 algebra to geometry. But of these personal feelings, the occasion 

 has betrayed me into speaking perhaps too much already. Into 

 that fault, I trust, I shall not often fall again. I pass to the expo • 

 sition of views respecting the objects and prospects of our Society. 



The Royal Irish Academy was incorporated (as you know) in 

 1786, having been founded a short time before, for the promotion 

 generally, but particularly in Ireland, of Science, Polite Literature, 

 and Antiqtiities. Its objects were to be the True, the JBeautifuly 

 and the Old : with which ideas, of the True and Beautiful, is inti- 

 •mately connected the coordinate (and perhaps diviner) idea of the 

 Good. So comprehensive, therefore, was the original plan of this 

 Academy, that it was designed to include nearly every object of 

 human contemplation, and might almost be said to adapt itself to 

 all conceivable varieties of study ; insomuch that scarce any me- 

 ditation or inquiry is directly and necessarily excluded from a place 

 among our pleasant labours : and precedents may accordingly 

 be found, among our records, for almost every kind of contribu- 

 tion. If only a diligence and patient zeal be shown, such as befit 

 the high aims of our body ; and if due care be taken, that the spirit 

 of love be not violated, nor brother oflfend brother in anything ; 

 no strict nor narrow rules prevent us from receiving whatever may 

 be offered to our notice, with an indulgent and joyful welcome. 

 And though we meet only as studious, meditative men, and abstain 

 from including among our objects any measures of immediate, out- 

 .ward, practical utility, such as improvements in agriculture, or 

 other useful arts, — a field which had been occupied, in this metro- 



