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guiding principles are the most exalted on which the human mind 
can rely, love of knowledge, sense of duty, reverence of truth! To 
be one of your number is itself a high distinction; how much 
‘ higher to be chosen as your head! how much the highest to be so 
honoured in one’s own country ! 
Yet I cannot but feel, that in proportion to the dignity of such 
an office so are also the weight of its duties and the burden of its 
responsibility; which become still heavier when 1 compare myself 
with those who have preceded me in this proud station. Not to 
speak of the illustrious men who, in the earlier years of the Aca- 
demy, upheld it by their energy and prudence, and flung over its 
infant struggles the glory of their own fame, I cannot fail to re- 
member that I follow in immediate succession two of that great 
triad, who, in this latter time, have especially contributed to win 
for you that lofty position which you now hold in the realm of 
science. I know how painfully all here feel, that the third would 
as surely have filled the place which I now hold, had he been 
spared to pursue his brilliant career. 
But though I may not compare myself to those mighty ones 
in achievements or power, there are qualities in which I yield 
neither to them nor to any, and on which, with your aid, I rely to 
preserve untarnished the sceptre which you have committed to my 
hand. The first is, devoted attachment to this Academy, which I 
have cherished and prized above the other scientific societies with 
which Iam connected, during a series of years equalling half the ordi- 
nary extent of human life. The second, love of Ireland; pride in 
all that reveals the value and exalts the renown of my country; in- 
tense interest in all that tends to develope the powers and dignify 
the character of my countrymen. To carry into active effect this 
sentiment, has been with me a guiding principle through life; 
and whenever I have had access to the ear of power, or in the ordi- 
nary intercourse of scientific and social life, to give it extension 
and enforcement has been a main motive of my exertion, the aim 
of my ambition. I love my countrymen, not merely because they 
are my countrymen, but because there is in them a rich endowment 
of noble qualities. Their faults are but too apparent; they lie on 
the surface, and so do the causes ofthem; but beneath we find anex- 
