( vi ) 



tiiries, was full of the most refined, subtle metrical artifices, bearing 

 evidence of the existence of a degree of literary culture in Ireland 

 far beyond that of the contemporary Teutons and Scandinavians who 

 seem to have been the only other Europeans then in the possession of 

 a vernacular literature; the literature of France and Italy, during 

 these centuries, having been in Latin, not in the native tongue. It 

 is also remarkable for its early Christian architecture and its noble 

 apostolic work, which bore the light of religion to Europe for many 

 centuries. 



The history of this Academy shows, that originating in 1772 as a 

 private scientific and literary society, and thus continuing for four- 

 teen years, it then received a charter of incorporation as a Eoyal 

 Academy for promoting the studies of science, polite literature, and 

 antiquities in Ireland, with a president and council of twenty- 

 one members to represent in equal proportions these three depart- 

 ments. The first volume of Transactions was published in 1787, and 

 was prefaced by the Eev. Eobert Burrowes, who, after showing the 

 correlation of mathematical, physical, and mechanical science, of 

 chemistry and natural history, and their relations to national pros- 

 perity, speaks of the opportuneness of the time, and especially 

 notices what has since so much redounded to the honour of Ireland, its 

 medical school, its astronomical observatory, and the fact that it had 

 for its first president the Earl of Charlemont, clarum et ve7ierahile 

 nomen, whose zeal for the practical interests of Ireland was only 

 equalled by that for her advancement in learning. 



The year 1822 is marked in the annals of the Academy by the 

 election for its president of the Eev. Dr. Brinkley, then Andrews 

 Professor of Astronomy, and subsequently Bishop of Cloyne. It was 

 a remarkable time, for the collapse which followed the events of 

 1800 was succeeded by signs of a revival in the intellectual status of 

 the country, and, in 1827, Hamilton succeeded to the chair of 

 Astronomy, and, in 1836, his successor, the Eev. Dr. Lloyd, became 

 Provost of Trinity College, where he had initiated those educational 

 reforms which have so greatly assisted the progress of science and 

 literature in the country. 



FoUoAving the period from 1825, the country seemed to awake 

 from an intellectual torpor of nearly a quarter of a century's duration. 

 Our periodic literature and our schools of medicine seemed first to 



