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library, then, spurs as well as helps.—The prizes which from 
time to time we award for successful exertion in the various de- 
partments of study, might seem to be stimulants only ; yet if we 
were to act sufficiently upon the spirit of precedents, of which we 
have several among our past proceedings, and which allow us to 
make our awards in part pecuniary, as well as honorary, they might 
become important assistances, and not merely exeitements to 
study; they might serve, for instance, to enrich the private libraries 
of the authors on whom they were conferred. Why might we not, 
for example, instead of giving one gold medal, which can (accord- 
ing to the custom of this country) only be gazed at for a while and 
then shut up, allow the author who has been thought worthy of a 
prize to select any books for himself, which he might think most 
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 
areward? 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 views 
and principles, and not as any proposal of measures for your 
adoption ; 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 reward 
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 advantage 
to them,) is likely or rather is sure to be adopted by the Society at 
