169 
has been complimented in the philosophical acts, as you will 
find by the paper Mr. Ashe will send you, wherein for curious 
subjects (invented by our learned and ingenious Provost) I 
think we may vie with any Oxford ever had, and truly most 
of the poems and speeches therein were excellent. Thus, 
Tom., you see that learning begins to peep out amongst us. 
The tidings, that our name is in the journals of Amsterdam, 
was very pleasing to me, and really, without vanity, I think 
our city and nation may be herein something beholding to 
us, for I believe the name Dublin has hardly ever before been 
printed or heard of amongst foreigners on a learned account.’ 
The Minutes of the Oxford Society were likewise regularly 
transmitted and read at the meetings of the Philosophical 
Society of Dublin. 
** On the 11th of May, 1685, ‘ Mr. Molyneaux going for 
England, Mr. Ashe was chosen Secretary; and Mr. Tollet 
was then nominated Treasurer in Mr. Pleydell’s place.’ These 
gentlemen were continued in office at the November meeting 
of that year, and Lord Mountjoy was elected President. In 
June, 1686, Mr. Edward Smith* was chosen Secretary, and 
the other officers of the Society were re-elected at the general 
meeting, together with the following council :—Sir R. Red- 
ding, Sir Paul Ricaut, the Provost, Dr. Willoughby, and Mr. 
W. Molyneaux. They then adjourned to the 5th of Novem- 
ber. The last notice of the Society at this period which we 
have been able to discover, is in the minute-book of the Royal 
Society, in which, according to Birch, we read, that on the 
13th of July, 1687, ‘the minutes of the Dublin Society for 
several months past were read ;’ but there is no detail of their 
* In the minutes for 2lst July, 1684, we read as follows:—‘‘ Ordered, 
That the thanks of this society be returned to Mr. Smith, for the honour he 
did us in the public act in the College on this lemma paradoxon vetus A2gyp- 
tiacum, quod sol nonnunquam oritur in occidente. Demonstratur de Societate 
ad promovendam scientiam naturalem Dublinii nuper instituta.”—Birch's His- 
tory of the Royal Society, vol. iv. p. "a 
P2 
