SCIENCE. Page 29, Line 11, for Pythagorus, read Pythagoras. POLITE LITERATURE. Page 22, Line 3, read oδ ἐκ θρονα. Page 52, Line 17, for triods, read triads. Page 86, Line 21, for cymbol, read cymbal. ANTIQUITIES. Page 34, Line 5, read acerrima. Page 143, Line 13, read are frequently. Page 149, Line 12, for Tuetonic, read Teutonic. * The quotation from Euripides, page 62, Polite Literature, having been overlooked in the correction, is here printed more accurately. PREFACE. To the feveral advantages which Europe has within these latter centuries experienced from the cultivation of science and polite literature, this kingdom unfortunately has remained in a great measure a stranger. As no Irishman's partiality will deny this, fo no man's prejudice should be fuffered to make it an occafion of illiberal imputation on the capacity of Irishmen, while in the state of the country fo many local peculiarities may be found fully fufficient to account for it. The important changes which took place in the government upon the invasion by Henry the Second were not carried on with fo little disturbance, as to permit the nation to apply itself immediately to the peaceful employments of literary enquiry nor could it reasonably be prefumed, that two claffes of inhabitants entirely diffimilar in their inclinations and habits, and afterwards more widely feparated by a difference in religion, fhould be readily B prevailed prevailed on to lay afide their mutual enmity, and unite in the pursuit of speculative science. The connection of this kingdom with England, instead of teaching Ireland the many valuable acquifitions of English industry, tended rather to entice away its men of genius to a country in which, as learning was more fashionable, its profeffors might be certain of enjoying more at ease the advantages of rational communication, and of receiving more ample encouragement. Its natural fituation, remote from the line of immediate intercourfe between any two more civilized nations, removed it also from all acquaintance with foreign improvement: and its want of political importance banished from it all those whose wealth and ambition might have introduced practical fcience, afforded a liberal patronage to ingenuity, and raised their country to dignity, to opulence and to reputation. SUCH are the feveral caufes which fatally confpired to detain this kingdom for a series of years in a state of comparative ignorance and inferiority, to counteract its natural advantages, and to derogate from its national character: and to these it is owing, that while its fons became illuftrious abroad for enterprize and for ability, their country should yet have remained neglected, and its inhabitants poor, inactive and unenlightened. But the influence of many of these causes time has in a confiderable mory confiderable degree weakened, and peculiar circumftances have now given to Ireland an importance in the political fcale, which habits of well-directed industry alone can establish and maintain. Whatever therefore tends, by the cultivation of ufeful arts and fciences, to improve and facilitate its manufactures; whatever tends, by the elegance of polite literature, to civilize the manners and refine the taste of its people; whatever tends to awaken a spirit of literary ambition, by keeping alive the meof its antient reputation for learning, cannot but prove of the greatest national advantage. To a wifh to promote in these important refpects the advancement of knowledge in this kingdom, the Royal Irish Academy for Science, Polite Literature, and Antiquities, owes its establishment; and though the members who compose it are not entirely without hopes that their efforts may hereafter become perhaps extensively useful and refpected, yet the original intent of their inftitution must be confidered as confining their views for the prefent more immediately to Ireland. If their endeavours fhall but serve to excite in their countrymen some sense of the dignity of mental exertion, if their exhortation and example shall be fo far fuccefsful as to become the means of turning vacant thoughts to fcience and to utility, their labours are abundantly recompenfed. IF it be faid that in focieties of this fort too much attention is frequently beftowed on subjects barren and fpeculative, B 2 speculative, it may be answered, that no one science is fo little connected with the reft as not to afford many principles whofe ufe may extend confiderably beyond the science to which they primarily belong, and that no propofition is so purely theoretical as to be totally incapable of being applied to practical purposes. There is no apparent connection between duration and the cycloidal arch, the properties of which duly attended to have furnished us with our best regulated methods of measuring time: and he who has made himself master of the nature and affections of the logarithmic curve, is not aware that he has advanced confiderably towards afcertaining the proportionable density of the air at its various distances from the furface of the earth. The researches of the mathematician are the only fure ground on which we can reason from experiments; and how far experimental science may affift the commercial interests of a state, is clearly evinced by the fuccefs of thofe feveral manufactures in the neighbouring countries of England and France, where the hand of the artificer has taken its direction from the philofopher. manufacture is in reality but a chemical process, and the machinery requifite for carrying it on but the right application of certain propofitions in rational mechanics. If chemistry and natural history then have never yet employed themselves in enquiring into the state of this country, if its minerals have never yet been explored, Every nor |