20 MEMOIR OE THE LATE ROBERT BALL, LL. D, 
as connected therewith, income derivable therefrom, and prospect of 
future advancement, he was emphatically a disappointed man. Expec¬ 
tations had been held out to him that had not been realized, and he was 
gradually led to look with a jaundiced eye on all that belonged to the 
routine of official duty. It was in vain that some of his friends tried to 
argue against this feeling; to urge that “ man is born to trouble as the 
sparks fly upwardthat each station in life has its own anxieties; and 
that his brought with them countervailing advantages. The uniform 
reply was, in substance, however varied might be the words, “ The 
heart knoweth its own bitterness.” 
The vigorous and healthy constitution he originally enjoyed could 
not but be affected by close confinement, over-exertion, and desponding 
spirits. From the good effects that even a few days’ relaxation always 
afforded there can be no doubt that a more prolonged absence from “ toil 
and trouble” would have been, at any time during the last years of his 
office life, productive of beneficial results. In the autumn and winter 
of 1846, the “famine year,” there was a great and unavoidable increase 
of office work. It came upon Eall at a time when he was physically 
but ill fitted to bear the additional burthen; and, after continuing his 
efforts longer than he ought to have done, he became utterly prostrated, 
and was ordered by his physicians to cease altogether for some weeks 
from anything requiring mental effort. 
There are services which are trying, responsible, and laborious, yet 
which have something cheering and. pleasant at the close, as the murky 
sky is sometimes gladdened by the tints of the sunset. The close came 
at last, but brought to Ball no graceful recognition of official services 
performed, nor that provision for the evening of life that he had anti¬ 
cipated. In 1852 a reduction took place in the Chief Secretary’s office, 
and Mr. Ball was placed on the retired list, on the ground that he “ de¬ 
voted much attention to scientific pursuits; and that it was not ex¬ 
pedient that public servants should be thus occupied.” He felt much 
hurt at the rebuke implied in these words, for his duties had not been 
neglected,—they had, according to his convictions, been faithfully and 
honestly fulfilled. At the end of twenty-five years’ public service, his 
retiring allowance was now fixed at £162 per annum. 
A few years prior to his being superannuated at the Castle, he had, 
in 1844, entered on a public appointment of a very different kind,—- 
that of Director of the Museum in Trinity College, Dublin. This office 
was taken with the full approval of his superiors, Lord Eliot and Mr. 
Pennefather. It exercised an important influence on his future life, 
supplying not merely regular occupation, but occupation most congenial 
to his tastes and acquirements. It tasked his energies for years; but in 
none of his letters is it ever coupled with complaint. Of it he could 
say with sincerity,—“ My good will is to it.” 
It is so rarely that Mr. Ball speaks of his own acquirements or of his 
private collection, that a few passages from the letter, addressed to the 
Board of Trinity College, in which he proposes for the Directorship, may 
be read with interest:— 
