Inaugural Address of the President, Sir W. R. Hamilton. 377 



inductions of astronomers respecting the distances and sizes of the 

 sun and moon ; and hinted that he disliked our year, for containing 

 the odd fraction of a day. Yet this was a man, not only of great 

 private worth, but of great intellectual power, and eminent in his 

 profession as in the state. Astronomers and methematicians, it 

 may be, look sometimes on other inductions with a not less un- 

 founded incredulity. It is one of the advantages of an Academy, 

 so constituted as ours is, that it brings together persons of the most 

 different tastes and the most varied ment^ habits, and teaches them 

 an intellectual toleration, which may ripen into intellectual compre- 

 hension. Thus, while the antiquary catches from the scientific man 

 his ardent desire for progression, and for that clearer light which is 

 future, the man of science imbibes something in return of the 

 antiquarian reverence for that which remains from the past. The 

 literary man and the antiquary, again, re- act upon each other, 

 through the connexion of the Beautiful and the Old, which in con- 

 ception are distinct, but in existence are often united. And finally, 

 the scientific man learns elegance of method from the man of lite- 

 rature, and teaches him precision in return. 



Before I leave the subject of Transactions, I may remark that 

 their value, both as stimulants and as assistants to study, must much 

 depend on the rapidity and extent of their circulation, and on the 

 care that is taken to put them as soon as possible into the hands or 

 within the reach of studious men abroad. Reciprocally it is of im- 

 portance that measures should be taken for obtaining speedy in- 

 formation here of what is doing by such men in other countries. 

 On both these points, some reforms have lately been made, but 

 others still are needed, and will soon be submitted to your Council. 

 On these and all questions of improvement, I rely upon receiving the 

 assistance of all those gentlemen who are in authority among us ; 

 but especially am encouraged by the hope of the cordial co-operation 

 of your excellent Vice-President, Professor Lloyd, who has done so 

 much already for this Academy, in these and in other respects. 



It may deserve consideration, as connected with the last-men- 

 tioned point, whether Reports upon some foreign memoirs of emi- 

 nent merit, accompanied by extracts, and, perhaps, translations, 

 might not sometimes be advantageously called for. There is, I think, 

 among our early records, some hint that the Academy had once a 

 paid Translator. It may or it may not be expedient to revive the 

 institution of such an office ; or to give direct encouragement to the 

 exertions of those,* who without any express reference to our own 

 body, work in this way for us, while working for the public ; but no 

 one can doubt that it is desirable to diminish the too great isolated- 

 ness which at present exists among the various learned bodies of 

 the world. The Reports of the British Association on the actual 



* For instance, Mr. Richard Taylor, of London, F.S.A., &c., who lately 

 began to publish Scientijic MemoirSy selected and translated from the 

 Transactions of Foreign Academies of Science, and other foreign sources ; 

 which valuable publication is now suspended for want of sufficient support 

 from the public— iVb/e bt/ President. 



