16^ Notice concerning the Li/e and Writings 



fellow and tutor of Caius, where he was very popular as an in- 

 structor. 



He left Cambridge to fill the astronomical chair of the Uni- 

 versity of Dublin, which had become vacant by the death of 

 Usher ; and the Transactions of the Irish Academy, and the 

 archives of the Observatory, and the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of London, soon became filled with the valuable fruits of 

 his indefatigable zeal. In all his writings we find the faithful his- 

 torian, the sincere lover of truth, the accurate observer, and the 

 profound mathematician. Equally proud of his knowledge and 

 character, the Irish Academy placed him at its head, under the 

 honourable title of Perpetual President. In 1827 the Govern- 

 ment of his country extended its patronage to him, by appoint- 

 ing him to the bishopric of Cloyne ; an episcopate which had 

 previously been held by the celebrated Berkeley, the meta- 

 physician ; and the revenues of which are considerable. Thus 

 did he exchange scientific discovery for ecclesiastical dignity. 

 From the moment he accepted the mitre, he, whose whole life 

 had been devoted to the contemplation of the firmament and the 

 solution of the sublime questions which are involved in the mo- 

 tions of the stars, abandoned these seducing occupations^ to dis- 

 charge the duties of his new employment. Probably, to avoid 

 all temptation, the Ex-Director of the Irish Royal Observatory, 

 the late Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University, 

 had not in his palace a common telescope. We owe this interest- 

 ing fact to the testimony of an individual, who, residing with 

 Brinkley at the time of a lunar eclipse, in the lack of all in- 

 struments, could examine it only with the naked eye. 



Brinkley died in Dublin on the 13th September 1835. His 

 mortal remains were followed to the grave by all the lovers of 

 science in the Irish capital, and were deposited in the Chapel 

 of the University. We trust that the following biographical 

 catalogue will sufficiently exhibit the astronomer, the profes- 

 sor, and the geometrician. Concerning his moral character I 

 cannot express myself better than in the words of a letter which 

 has just reached me. " I suppose that no man was ever more 

 regretted. Though Brinkley dwelt in this unfortunate Ireland, 

 the focus of so many burning passions, of so many implacable 

 hatreds, and cruel miseries, yet I hesitate not to affirm that ;;he 

 had not a single foe !^ 



