Inaugural Address of the President, Sir W. R. Hamilton. :371 



useful for his future researches, within a certain specified limit of 

 expense ; and then not only purchase those books for him out of 

 our own prize funds, but also stamp them with the arms of the 

 Academy, or otherwise testify that they were given to him by us as 

 a reward ? Or might not some such presentation of books be at 

 least combined with the presentation of medals ? But the whole 

 system of prizes will deserve an attentive reconsideration, for which 

 this is not the proper time nor place ; and anything that I may now 

 have said, or may yet say on that subject, in this address, is to be 

 looked upon as merely intended to illustrate a few general vieios 

 and principles, and not as any proposal of measures for your adop- 

 tion ; since, upon measures of detail, I have not as yet even made 

 my own mind up ; and am aware that, by the constitution of our 

 Society, all measures of that kind must first be matured in the 

 Council, before they are submitted to the Academy at large for 

 final sanction or rejection. 



The publication of our Transactions is another field of action 

 for our body, and perhaps the most important of all ; in which it is 

 not easy to determine whether the stimulating or the assisting prin* 

 ciple prevails ; so much both of inducement and of facility do they 

 give to study and to its communication. It is, indeed, a high re- 

 ward for past, and inducement to future labours, to know that 

 whatever of value may be elicited by the studies of any members 

 of this body, (nor are we to be thought to wish to confine the ad- 

 vantage to them,) is likely or rather is sure to be adopted by the 

 Society at large, and published to the world, at least to the learned 

 world, in the name and by the order of the whole : — the responsi- 

 bility for any errors of detail, and the credit for any merit of origin- 

 ality, remaining still in each case with the author, while the Aca- 

 demy exercises only a right of preliminary or primd facie examina- 

 tion, and a superintendence of a general kind. Nay, the more 

 rigorous this preliminary examination is, and the more strict this 

 general superintendence, the greater is the compliment paid to the 

 writer whose productions stand the test ; and the more honourable 

 does it become to any particular essay, to be admitted among the 

 memoirs of a Society, in proportion as those memoirs are made more 

 select, and expected and required to be more high. But besides 

 this honorary stimulus, which we should all in our several spheres 

 exert ourselves to make more effective, by each endeavouring, ac- 

 cording to his powers, to contribute, or to judge, or to diffuse, there 

 is also a powerful and direct assistance given to study, by the pub- 

 lishing of profound intellectual works at the expense of a corporate 

 body, rather than at the expense of individuals ; a course which 

 spares the private funds of authors and of readers ; and thus pro- 

 cures, for the collections of learned and studious men, many works 

 of value, which otherwise might never have appeared. Indeed, the 

 publication of Transactions has long been regarded by me as the 

 most direct and palpable advantage resulting from the institution of 



2L2 



