169 



has been complimented in the philosophical acts, as you will 

 find by the paper Mr. Ashe will send you, wherein for curious 

 subjects (invented by our learned and ingenious Provost) I 

 think we may vie with any Oxford ever had, and truly most 

 of the poems and speeches therein were excellent. Thus, 

 Tom., you see that learning begins to peep out amongst us. 

 The tidings, that our name is in the journals of Amsterdam, 

 was very pleasing to me, and really, without vanity, I think 

 our city and nation may be herein something beholding to 

 us, for 1 believe the name Dublin has hardly ever before been 

 printed or heard of amongst foreigners on a learned account.' 

 The Minutes of the Oxford Society were likewise regularly 

 transmitted and read at the meetings of the Philosophical 

 Society of Dublin. 



" On the 1 1th of May, 1685, ' Mr. Molyneaux going for 

 England, Mr. Ashe was chosen Secretary ; and Mr. Toilet 

 was then nominated Treasurer in Mr. Pleydell's place.' These 

 gentlemen were continued in oiBce at the November meetino- 

 of that year, and Lord Mountjoy was elected President. In 

 June, 1686, Mr. Edward Smith* was chosen Secretary, and 

 the other officers of the Society were re-elected at the general 

 meeting, together with the following council: — Sir R. Red- 

 ding, Sir Paul Ricaut, the Provost, Dr. Willoughby, and Mr. 

 W. Molyneaux. They then adjourned to the 5th of Novem- 

 ber. The last notice of the Society at this period which we 

 have been able to discover, is in the minute-book of the Royal 

 Society, in which, according to Birch, we read, that on the 

 13th of July, 1687, ' the minutes of the Dublin Society for 

 several months past were read ;' but there is no detail of their 



* In the minutes for 21st July, 1684, we read as follows: — " Ordered, 

 That the thanks of this society be returned to Mr. Smith, for the honour he 

 - did us in the public act in the College on this lemma paradoxon vetus j^gyp- 

 tiacum, quod sol nonnunquani oritur in occidente. Demonstratur de Societate 

 ad promovendam scientiam naturalem Duhlinii nuper instituta." — Birch's His- 

 tory of the Royal Society, vol. iv. p. 324. 



p 2 



