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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 I am 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 of them ; but beneath we find an ex- 



