200 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
the splendid rewards of commerce and monopoly, or by the unselfish 
solicitations of a pure love of knowledge, such as animates our efforts 
here—Science every day advances in useful discovery. Rich as we 
are in acquisitions of this kind, made during the present century, we 
may still look for further vast advantages over past generations in the 
enjoyment of all the arts’ and conveniences of life. Life itself seems 
visibly lengthened. Science, by the experimental study of the living 
tissue and of the atmosphere in which it exists, claims to have 
detected, and may ultimately intercept, the seeds of disease and 
untimely decay before they can reach their niduses of mischief in our 
bodies. Invention may aid Science any day in deriving mechanical 
power .at first hand from the magnetic circulation of jthe earth or air. 
Knowledge of the laws which govern the fertility of the soil and the 
serenity of the atmosphere may conduce to make human life easier, 
and bring down the high price which man must pay for leave to live. 
Still, the 
Audax omnia perpeti 
Gens humana 
will remain the old sons of Adam, to whom the control of the ele- 
ments, if they could attain it, would be as nothing in real value 
compared with the control of their own desires and passions; and for 
whose enlightenment in a higher wisdom than that of Calculus or 
Quaternion—in the wisdom which: makes life happy and beautiful, 
even if it be laborious—Philosophy and History and Poetry have 
been softening manners and gladdening the hours of leisure ever since 
the boon of letters was first bestowed on mankind. With these com- 
panions Science walked accompanied in the Grove of Academus, and 
walks still so accompanied in many of the first Academies of Europe ; 
and, if I have rightly divined your minds, I rejoice to believe that I 
am here as an exponent of your will that in the Royal Irish Academy 
they shall not be separated. 
