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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1865.— Stated Meeting. 

 The Yeet Rev. Chaeles Gbaves, D. D., President, in the Chair. 



The President delivered the following Address on the loss sustained 

 by the Academy in the death of Sir W. R. Hamilton. 



ADDEESS. 



Gentlemen, — The death of Sib "William Rowan Hamilton, Andrews' 

 Professor of Astronomy, Astronomer Royal of Ireland, for thirty-eight 

 years a most distinguished member of the Royal Irish Academy, and 

 formerly its President, was an event which could not be allowed to pass 

 without public notice in this place. There was not one of his brother 

 Academicians who did not look up to him with reverence on the ground 

 of his wonderful genius, the vastness of his attainments, and the number 

 and importance of his discoveries. And there were amongst us not a 

 few bound to him by ties of an intimate friendship, who had watched his 

 brilliant career with an affectionate sympathy, and rejoiced as each new 

 conquest which he achieved in the fields of Science earned for him fresh 

 laurels and a more extended fame. It is not strange, therefore, that his 

 recent death should be lamented by all of us as a loss almost irreparable 

 to Science, whilst within the circle of his friends it is deplored with a 

 profound and lasting sorrow. These feelings demanded utterance. I 

 should have been unfaithful in the performance of my duty as Pre- 

 sident — I should have been untrue to the convictions of my understand- 

 ing and my heart — if I had not endeavoured to express them. If the 

 expression be inadequate, I trust you will make allowance for the short- 

 comings of a speaker overpowered at once by the greatness of his theme, 

 and by the consciousness of his inability to do justice to it. 



It is not my intention here to present to you even a biographical 

 sketch of Hamilton or a complete outline of his character. Merely to 

 enumerate his works, and to state with adequate fulness their subjects, 

 would demand more time than is at our disposal. It must suffice if I 

 bring before you the turning points in the history of his life, and 

 briefly recall to your recollection his principal achievements as a 

 Mathematician. Rorn in August, 1805, in the house of his father, 

 Mr. Archibald Hamilton, in Dominick-street, Dublin, he gave from 

 his infancy indications of the possession of extraordinary powers ; and 

 they were not left without wise and diligent culture. His father con- 

 signed him when less than three years old to the care of his uncle, 

 the Rev. James Hamilton, of Trim, formerly a member of this Academy, 

 and a contributor to its "Transactions." TJnder the tuition of this affec- 

 tionate arid able instructor he carried on his studies till he became an 

 undergraduate in Trinity College in 1823. His career there was a 

 most brilliant one. In every kind of trial he distanced his competitors, 

 and justified all the expectations of his friends. Rut, whilst thus en- 

 gaged in collegiate exercises of a comparatively elementary nature, he 

 was already entering upon studies of greater range and elevation. A 

 year before he entered College he had drawn up, and communicated to 

 Dr. Rrinkley, then President of this Academy, a paper on Caustics, 



