198 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
the preliminary accomplishment of a sufficient Dictionary ; and if that 
work be completed during my occupation of this Chair, I shall retire 
from it with feelings of high self-gratulation at having been partaker 
in a labour which promises such an accession of honourable distinction 
to my country. 
In carrying forward so many lines of exploration, on so many 
different levels, prosecuted as they are by so great a variety of methods, 
our chief difficulty is not so much the production of matter as the con- 
version of it to the current uses of learning: for our volumes, whether 
of Transactions, Proceedings, or Special Series, can only be issued at 
considerable intervals ; and we have no organ through which to notify 
our work at the time of its performance to the scientific and literary 
world. It is true authors of Papers receive a certain number of copies 
for their own distribution. But there is nothing more fastidious than 
the modesty of true learning. Men competent to the production of 
Papers of real value are quite above the arts of self-advertisement, 
even if there were not always some distrust of the value of matter so 
supplied to those who occupy the position of directors of contemporary 
thought. It cannot be expected that the gentlemen who are admitted 
at our Meetings as representing the Press, should possess the know- 
ledge necessary for appreciating the great variety of subjects, more or 
less abstruse, considered here. Council, however, has adopted a rule 
which, if strictly acted on, may to some extent lessen this difficulty, 
and allow at least the readers of the Dublin journals to know some- 
thing of the nature of the learned work going on amongst them— 
what it is about, and in what particulars it is that it proposes to 
advance knowledge. It is now our rule that leave to read a Paper 
will not be granted unless the complete manuscript, accompanied by 
an Abstract, be in the hands of the Secretary. These Abstracts, after 
the reading, are open to the inspection of visitors as well as Members, 
and ought to insure the Academy against apparent neglects which, I 
am sure, have arisen, not from unwillingness to aid us in our objects, 
but, I infer, from an inability, of which even well-educated men need 
not be ashamed, to follow the drift and catch the cardinal points of the 
Papers: for these, if worth anything, will always task intelligence to 
follow and appreciate. 
Another instance in which the fastidiousness of learning em- 
barrasses the work of the Academy, is the administration of the 
Cunningham Fund. Men of mature knowledge, animated by the true 
philosophic spirit of exploration, whose contributions alone are of any 
value to us, will not condescend to competitions on set subjects. A 
subject may be set and successful results had, where there is the 
assurance that someone, impelled by an unsolicited genius, has made it 
his voluntary study, and will not recoil from the idea of a pecuniary 
reward; but such occasions rarely arise, and are not in harmony with 
the theory of competition. After nearly ninety years of unsuccessful 
endeavour to apply the Cunningham Fund as the donor had intended, 
we, about five years ago, sought relief from the Court of Chancery. 
