MEMOIR OF THE LATE ROBERT BALL, LL. D. 23 
some particular candidate in whose success they felt interested. All in¬ 
formation that he, as a public man, could give was imparted promptly 
and courteously. Beyond this he was utterly unapproachable: he feared 
not frowns, and he sought not favours. 
In his letters to me he mentions from time to time the addition to his 
income from these several sources. To him the increase brought compara¬ 
tive affluence, and this happily at a time when the educational expenses 
of his children were necessarily on the increase. His habits had never 
been extravagant; but, with a wife and youthful family dependent upon 
him, there existed strong reasons for a consistent and judicious economy. 
While those men of science, from the sister country and from the Con¬ 
tinent, who called upon him, experienced his unostentatious hospitality 
and kindness, he was never tempted to pass beyond the limit that pru¬ 
dence prescribed. Hence, though he felt for many years that his income 
was a restricted one, he never experienced the miseries attendant upon 
debt. There was no man, therefore, whom he feared or felt ashamed to 
meet ; nor was his self-respect ever impaired by those unworthy sub¬ 
terfuges which are resorted to by those who are possessed of less self- 
denial. This is a rock on which the man of literature or science too oft 
makes shipwreck of his freedom of thought and his integrity of action. 
The avoidance of it seems deserving, therefore, of special mention. 
It was acting in perfect conformity to these principles that, instead 
of having at his house the entertainments known as evening parties, he 
had reunions on a larger scale, when the attractions were solely of an 
intellectual character. At these conversaziones tea and coffee consti¬ 
tuted the only refreshment; and thus, for an outlay utterly insignificant, 
he would receive an assemblage of perhaps 150 persons of the highest 
intellectual and social eminence which the learned of fashionable circles 
of the city could furnish. The arrangements were always excellent, and 
each conversazione had its own peculiar novelties to furnish food for 
comment or inquiry. To be invited was considered as an acknowledg¬ 
ment of intellectual gifts of some kind or other; and this circumstance, 
with the pleasures which the evening afforded, always made the invita¬ 
tions not only willingly accepted, but even to some extent desired and 
sought for. It was a pleasant and cheering spectacle to see him receiv¬ 
ing as his guests noblemen and courtiers, the heads of the Church and 
of the Bar, of the Army and of the Medical Profession, of our Irish Uni¬ 
versities, of the principal scientific societies in Dublin, and such 
strangers of literary eminence as might chance to be then in town. 
He had occasionally an assemblage of a very different kind, which, 
if less brilliant, was not less animated,—a children’s party. His little 
guests, on entering his rooms, soon felt at their ease, and turned in real 
earnest to enjoy themselves. But never did the “fun grow fast and 
furious” until Dr. Ball entered into their pastimes, and took part in all 
that was going forward; and so taking was the example, that some of 
his confreres, who elsewhere have sat as the learned Presidents of Sec¬ 
tions, have on such occasions flung gravity aside, and joined heart and 
good-will in the uproarious merriment of the hour. 
