101 



what he calls the aconic function of a hexagon, at a future 

 meeting of the Academy. The equation itself was exhibited 

 by him to some scientific friends so long ago as the August 

 and September of 1849; and also at the Meeting of the 

 British Association, at Edinburgh, in 1850. 



April 14th, 1851. 



THOMAS ROMNEY ROBINSON, D. D., President, 

 in the Chair. 



John Barker, M. B., and WilHam Kelly, M. D., were 

 elected Members of the Academy. 



George Petrie, LL. D., presented a specimen of a vitrified 

 font in the Coimty of Derry. 



The President delivered an inaugural Address. 



It was Resolved unanimously, — That the President be 

 requested to allow his Address to be printed in the Proceedings. 



The President's Address was as follows : 



Gentlemen, — It is my first duty to express my grateful ac- 

 knowledgment of the honour which you have conferred on me; 

 an honour high in the estimation of mankind, highest in mine. 

 Other titles are attained most frequently by the accidents of posi- 

 tion or birth; are even sometimes acquired by means which are 

 positively degrading: they are occasionally the prizes of successful 

 intrigue ; sometimes even the reward of crime. They are, there- 

 fore, no accurate exponents of an individual's superiority in that 

 which constitutes the real nobility of man ; their value is conven- 

 tional, rated highest by the meanest minds, and negative, an actual 

 dishonour, unless they be accompanied by the more sterling deco- 

 rations of wisdom and virtue. But it is far otherwise with this. In 

 naming me your chief, you have given me the first rank in a Soci- 

 ety where all are noble ; a Society whose franchise is based on per- 

 sonal excellence, on moral worth, on intellectual superiority: whose 



