48 



Proceedings of the Ro)/al Irish Academi/. 



an absolute necessity, the danger is apparent that tliese special 

 papers are addressed to those only who are specially trained in some very 

 exclusive or narrow branch of knowledge, so that other students are 

 practically left uninterested or indifferent. But this tends to split up 

 the Academy into several distinct branches without any but the 

 most external bond ; and here the division entitled Polite Literature 

 may naturally point to the mediating element. The section Polite 

 Literature opens up a wide field for discussion. It deals with all art, 

 arts of the eye and of the ear, of sculpture, of music, of painting, of 

 poetry ; it embraces a treatise on the sublime or a criticism on the style 

 of an author. These each and all furnish abundant scope for the compo- 

 sition of papers with a view to interest and improvement. They attract 

 and they instruct. One can hardly doubt that this field furnishes 

 endless material for study ; but I am disposed to fear that it is in danger 

 of being too much lost sight of in the interests of the papers that are 

 looked on as being in some respects the more legitimate objects of the 

 Academy's labours. But surely the literary side is just as valuable 

 and efficient for human improvement as the scientific, and it certainly 

 promises to be more interesting. 



And in this section one of the sides seems to me altogether 

 ignored, viz. : — that of Polite Literature in the narrower sense — I mean 

 the study of the works of literary art. I cannot recollect any case of 

 a paper being read here on a poet or prose writer of; English or any 

 other language. But if the humanities belong to the Academy's sphere 

 of action, then it can scarcely be right to ignore^ or undervalue the 

 study or interpretation of the works of literature. It is not a slight 

 merit to understand and reveal the thought and the aim of great minds 

 of the past or the present. It may be granted that the greater part of 

 the world's literature has been examined and appraised, that there 

 are very few countries whose written thoughts have not been 

 submitted to criticism ; but, then, with each epoch the criticism has to 

 be reconsidered from a different point of view, with further light, 

 with different sympathies and modes of thought. As a distinguished 

 poetess*^ has said : — 



What the poet writes, 

 He writes : mankind accepts it, if it suits, 

 And that's success : if not, the poem's passed 

 From hand to hand, and yet from hand to hand, 

 Until the unborn snatch it, crying out 

 In pity on their fathers' being so dull, — 

 And that's success too." 



* E. B. Browning, AiiroralLchjh, p. 190. 



