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desire no higher honour, and for which I hope that my conduct 
will thank you better than my words. 
And yet, Gentlemen, it is to me a painful thought, that the 
opportunity for your so soon bestowing this mark of confidence 
and esteem has arisen out of the deaths, too rapidly succeeding 
each other, of the two last Presidents of our body, who, while they 
are on public grounds deplored, and for their private worth weré 
honoured and beloved by all of us, must ever be remembered by 
me with peculiar love and honour :—Brinkley, who introduced me to 
your notice, by laying on your table long ago my first mathematical 
paper; and Lloyd, whose works, addressed to the University of Dub- 
lin, first opened to me that new world of mind, the application of 
algebra to geometry. But of these personal feelings, the occasion 
has betrayed me into speaking perhaps too much already. Into 
that fault, I trust, I shall not often fall again. I pass to the expo- 
sition of views respecting the objects and prospects of our Society. 
The Royal Irish Academy was incorporated (as you know) in 
1786, having been founded a short time before, for the promotion 
generally, but particularly in Ireland, of Science, Polite Literature, 
and Antiquities. Its objects were to be the True, the Beautiful, 
and. the Old: with which ideas, of the True and Beautiful, is inti- 
mately connected the coordinate (and perhaps diviner) idea of the 
Good. So comprehensive, therefore, was the original plan of this 
Academy, that it was designed to include nearly every object of 
human contemplation, and might almost be said to adapt itself to 
all conceivable varieties of study; insomuch that scarce any me- 
ditation or inquiry is directly and necessarily excluded from a place 
among our pleasant labours: and precedents may accordingly 
be found, among our records, for almost every kind of contribu- 
tion. If only a diligence and patient zeal be shown, such as befit 
the high aims of our body ; and if due care be taken, that the spirit 
of love be not violated, nor brother offend brother in anything; 
no strict nor narrow rules prevent us from receiving whatever may 
be offered to our notice, with an indulgent and joyful welcome. 
And though we meet only as studious, meditative men, and abstain 
from including among our objects any measures of immediate, out- 
ward, practical utility, such as improvements in agriculture, or 
other useful arts,—a field which had been occupied, in this metro- 
