46 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



But it is clear that it is by the medium of literature that this 

 desirable result was to he brought about, that, as the Charter quaintly 

 puts it, useful, curious, and polite literature should continue to 

 flourish and increase." This improvement was to be aided by the 

 reading and publication of papers. This is, no doubt, the method 

 the Academy has always pursued ; but what is not quite so certain, 

 is the best means of fulfilling the clearly expressed purposes held in 

 view by the Charter. 



The Academy seems the natural continuation of the University. 

 After the studies of discipline and training come the studies of 

 progress and discovery; but the University is not primarily con- 

 structed with a view to advance these latter departments. In 

 a University there can be little room for independence of thought ; 

 it seeks rather for conformity ; it cultivates memory, not creation. It 

 requires that a student shall know what others have said, and it 

 is not asked (at least not mainly) of him what he has discovered. 

 The University tests whether the student knows what has been 

 said and thought. The Academy investigates what the man asserts 

 himself to have found out. The University enforces the mastery 

 of the known ; the Academy deals with the conquest of the 

 unknown. 



That is one of the purposes of its foundation ; and the manner in 

 which it has endeavoured to fulfil this purpose can be gathered from 

 the study of its publications. But the other purpose is not so easily 

 tested, and, perhaps, may be regarded as of relatively smaller impor- 

 tance. But if experience and tradition are to be trusted in anything, it 

 is surely a truism that a people of Celtic descent will not be averse to 

 speech. The Celtic philosopher, explaining the representation of the 

 God "Oy/xios, as Lucian tells, put it thus : " We Kelts do not regard 

 speech, tov Aoyov, as Hermes, as you Greeks do ; but we liken him to 

 Heracles, as being far stronger than Hermes ; the strongest, the wisest, 

 the most persuasive, drawing all men bound by the ears with bonds of 

 gold and amber" ; — a strongly characteristic and instructive symbolism. 

 Of course, in the case of all papers read before the Academy the 

 subject-matter will be estimated after the perusal at leisure of the paper 

 when printed. But, to ensure this end, there would be no need of any 

 meeting at all, nor of any machinery for bringing about oral discussion. 

 Yet no reasonable person would be inclined to deny the serviceable 

 side of Parliaments. One of the most effective means of stimulus, 

 and the surest guarantee of knowledge, is that it should have been 



