110 



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 excitements 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 

 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 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 



