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Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



and rehandled, the chances of invention are diminished. Hence it seems 

 to me that it appertains to the special function and theory of the 

 Academy, to take up the material furnished by its own researches 

 and the researches of other societies of the same special nature, and 

 to colligate the results of these researches into a temporary hypothesis 

 with a view to invention. Here probably the best expedient would 

 be the preparation of digests, not of the results of one society, but of 

 one branch of study derived fi'om the work of all societies throughout 

 all lands. 



Learned associations with special aims, and minor societies, can be 

 safely entrusted with the duty of accumulating masses of fact; but 

 the Academy should keep in view the not less imperative necessity of 

 correlation and theory. This should be the real aim of the Academy, 

 which should not look upon itself as merely another society of the 

 accumulative order. Its function should be largely to arouse interest, 

 to stimulate thought, to originate and disseminate ideas. It is by 

 acting towards these ends that it can best or perhaps only subserve 

 the purpose intended by the charter and by the idea of an Academy. 

 From this point of view it may rightly be urged that greater attention 

 should be paid to the human aspect of learning, and that Literature 

 should have assigned to it a higher place in its work. But not to 

 any great extent from the formal side. Questions of phonetics or 

 morphology in linguistics — of dates and editions in belles-lettres — of 

 incident and marvel in history — these are not the staple for an Academy 

 to mainly handle, but the origin, growth, and interaction of ideas. 



This is the need of oui' age. It was said of old : There be many 

 that say. Who will show us any good?" So now men are every- 

 where looking for more light, fresh ideas. If the ^study of the things 

 of the past, its persons, its events, its relics, be looked on as an end in 

 itself, and not as a means of enlightenment and stimulus, such study 

 will, in the press and rush of modern life, lose its meaning and deserve 

 its neglect. I cannot doubt that in this effort to lay before the world 

 right knowledge of the history of the past, fresh insight into the 

 problems of the present, and sagacious prevision of the needs of the 

 future, the Royal Irish Academy has no ignoble role to fill, and that, 

 towards this end, every member will realize that he is a citizen of no 

 mean city, wherein the great traditions of the past stand as landmarks 

 for guidance and as models for imitation. The Academy has for its 

 device a phrase of excellent omen, which I may set down here in 

 conclusion, We will endea-vouk." 



