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bered since, and from before, the days of Wadding. Fragments have been translated from a few at home, and if all the rest are of no higher value, we should have the less reason to regret their neglect; but chance specimens from a body of written composition are not like the specimens of most other things. In our present state, there is no judicious man who would hazard more than conjecture, and, per haps, add,—before you decide, examine, at least, what seem to be the most valuable, and are most valued in different libraries; and, before you return your verdict, forget not the relative character of other nations at the same period. At present we are prepossessed with unexamined opinions; and the positive assertions of national prejudice, whether for or against the antiquity or value of Irish writing, have yet to be met by a positive and candid examination of the writing itself. At all events, there is one evil which has hitherto pursued the antiquities of Ireland, "that the writers in general, who have known her language, have been deficient in critical knowledge; while those who have possessed the genuine spirit of criticism, have not only been ignorant of her ancient tongue, but despised it." The language, however, of a people, which is as copious as our own, if not more so, can never prove a proper object of contempt;* and the spirit which has begun to shew itself in the nineteenth century, if it only continue, will at last do justice to this long-neglected race.

That Irish literature, properly so called, should be in its present condition, is not owing to there having been no anxiety expressed by others respecting it. Nearly a hundred years ago, we find even Dean Swift, who was certainly no friend to the language itself, requesting the Duke of Chandos to restore to Ireland, by presenting to the library of Trinity, then newly erected, a large quantity of her ancient records, on paper and parchment, then in his Grace's possession, which had been collected, chiefly by Sir James Ware, and brought to England by Lord Clarendon. These, I believe, are still among the manuscripts at Stowe.

Edmund Burke also expressed much anxiety respecting the translation of these Irish records, and even prevailed on Sir John Seabright to send his manuscripts to Ireland for translation. The same feeling on this subject has also prevailed on the Continent. To quote only one instance:

* O'Reilly's Irish and English Dictionary (the last published) has upwards of 50,000 vocables. † Letter, dated 31st August 1734.

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"C'est un principe incontestable, que, sur l'histoire de chaque pays, les annales nationales, quand elles sont anciennes, authentiques, et reconnues pour telles par les étrangers, méritent plus de foi que les annales étrangères." -" Plusieurs sçavans étrangers reconnoissent que les Irlandois ont des annales d'une antiquité très respectable, et d'une authenticité à toute épreuve."

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In the year 1757, we find Dr Johnson writing to Dr O'Connor:-" I have long wished that the Irish literature were cultivated. Ireland is known by tradition to have been the seat of piety and learning; and surely it would be very acceptable to those who are curious, either in the original of nations, or the affinity of languages, to be further informed of the revolutions of a people so ancient, and once so illustrious. I hope you will continue to cultivate this kind of learning, which has lain so long neglected, and which, if it be suffered to remain in oblivion for another century, may, perhaps, never be retrieved.”

Twenty years after this, Johnson is writing to the same individual, and on the same subject:-" If I have ever disappointed you, give me leave to tell you that you have likewise disappointed me. I expected great discoveries in Irish antiquity, and large publications in the Irish language; but the world still remains as it was, doubtful and ignorant. What the Irish language is in itself, and to what languages it has affinity, are very interesting questions, which every man wishes to see resolved that has any philological or historical curiosity. Dr Leland begins his history too late; the ages which deserve an exact inquiry are those times, for such there were, when Ireland was the school of the west, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature. If you could give a history, though imperfect, of the Irish nation from its conversion to Christianity to the invasion from England, you would amplify knowledge with new views and new objects. Set about it, therefore, if you can; do what you can easily do without anxious exactness. Lay the foundation, and leave the superstructure to posterity."+

*Journal des Sçavans, October, 1764.

† Boswell's Life, anno 1777. The words in Italics were misquoted by Dr Campbell in his Strictures, "if such times there were," although he was actually the bearer of the letter to O'Connor.

For a specimen of the Irish remains still left in our own country, see the Transactions of the Iberno-Celtic Society for 1820, vol. i. part 1. in which upwards of a thousand separate tracts are mentioned. Though many of these are of no importance but as curiosities, the second part promises the catalogue of others which bear on the history and antiquities of the country. It is also very desirable that Mr Groves should publish his " Irish Historical Library," for which he has issued proposals,-as a correction and enlargement of Bishop Nicolson is truly a desideratum.

The native Irish, it is well known, lay claim to high antiquity with regard to literary pursuits, and the disposition to grant this, to a certain extent, seems to be rather on the increase. That a prejudice should have existed was not wonderful. The colloquial dialect itself having been actually outlawed at an early age, and the policy which dictated this measure having been pursued for ages, it was to be expected, in the nature of things, that corresponding feelings would ensue as to all their written compositions. The reader, however, it is repeated, need not be alarmed at the idea of being about to be involved in the labyrinth of Irish antiquities, or lost in the traditions of a fabulous age. At the same time, before coming to periods of indubitable certainty, it is but fair that he should be put in possession of a very few particulars, which may now be regarded as of equal credibility with those of Saxon or Norman history; although, when speaking of literature or learned men, in relation to those remote ages, the existing state of every other nation in Europe is presumed to be kept in view. It was then but a portion of the population, and, comparatively, a very small one, who possessed books or literature; for it is only since the invention of printing, or rather in our own times, that these are becoming the property of nations at large.

Every reader of history is familiar with the difference between the seventh, eighth, and ninth, and the three following centuries. In Irish history there will be found a striking correspondence with the general idea entertained as to these two periods. The early invasions of Ireland by the Danes are coincident with the appearance of learned men from that country in Britain, and on the continent of Europe. This may enable us to form some idea of the land which gave them birth and education; and serve to show, whether it can stand a comparison with the Saxon or Continental literature of these times, when pretensions to a certain extent of knowledge are not now treated with contempt.

With the existence of Patric, the mission of Palladius, or exertions of Columba, we do not interfere; but, whatever may be said of Ireland at that or an earlier period, by the seventh century there certainly must have been something inviting in the island, before it could become the place of resort. Bede states, that then many Anglo-Saxons, of the noble and middle classes, left their country, and went there to study the Sacred Writings, that the Irish received them hospitably, supplying them with books and gratuitous in

struction. It was towards the close of the seventh century, that Alfred, the Northumbrian king, in his youth, voluntarily went into Ireland, that he might pursue his studies, and of whom it was said, that the books revered by the Christians so engrossed his attention, as to procure for him the character of being most learned in the Scriptures.t This account is in some degree strengthened by a poetical manuscript in Irish, of which he was the reputed author. The subject of it is "Ireland, and the things to be found there."

About the same period, Willebrod or Willibrord of Northumbria proceeded to Ireland, the man who went as a Christian missionary into Friesland, and ultimately settling at Wittenburg, now Utrecht, founded its school. Alcuine, the Anglo-Saxon, who afterwards wrote his life, affirms, that he "studied twelve years in Ireland, under masters of high reputation, being intended for a preacher to many people.' Willibrord died in Eptenarch in 739.§

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"The best writers among the Saxons," says Warton, "flourished about the eighth century. These were Aldhelm, Ceolfride, Alcuine, and Bede, with whom I must also join King Alfred."

The Latin compositions of the first-mentioned are then said to have been "deemed extraordinary," and to have "excited the admiration of other countries,"||

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dation, however, which will disappoint any reader of the present day who looks into his writings, owing to his passion for alliteration, and his ungovernable fancy. But still, for whatever learning he possessed, he was materially indebted to Maildulf, an Irishman, who had taken up his abode at Malmesbury. Under this tutor, who supported himself by his school, Aldhelm became versed in both Latin and Greek,

*Bede, b. III. c. 27 & 28. See also Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, 3d edit. vol. I. 372. vol. III. 368. † Bede, Hist. p. 300. Turner, I. 377. This Alfred of Northumbria, who is sometimes confounded with Alfred the Great, appears in Bede as the first literary king among the Anglo-Saxons.

A copy, preserved in an old and valuable vellum manuscript, is now in the library of W. Monck Mason, Esq. See Iberno-Celt. Trans. p. 48. The name given by the Irish to Alfred was Flan-fionn.

§ Vit. Willib. lib. i. et ii. The ideas of Alcuine may be inferred from his views of the Scriptures, as expressed by himself." Study Christ," he says, "as foretold in the books of the prophets, and as exhibited in the Gospels; and when you find him, do not lose him; but introduce him into the home of thy heart, and make him the ruler of thy life. Love him as thy Redeemer and thy Governor, and as the Dispenser of all thy comforts. Keep his commandments, because in them is eternal life." Alcuine Op. p. 1637. And again, in writing to a scholar:-"I wish the four Gospels, instead of the twelve Eneids, filled your breast.-Read diligently, I beseech you, the Gospels of Christ."-Pages 1548 and 1561.

Warton's History of Poetry, 8vo, I. cxxvii. Cambden's Wiltshire, p. 242.

and, though he pursued other studies under Adrian of Naples, an African, then in Britain, his earnest desire was to have returned to Maildulf, for whom he seems to have cherished the strongest regard." I confess," he says, "my dearest, whom I embrace with the tenderness of pure affection, that when, about three years ago, I left your social intercourse, and withdrew from Kent, my littleness still was inflamed with an ardent desire for your society. I should have thought of it again, as it is my wish to be with you, if the course of things and the change of time would have suffered me. "'"*

Some of the most eminent among the Irish of those times were Albin and Clement, Claudius, Sedulius, Duncan, Erigena, Dungal, and others.

Now, in the age of Alcuine and Bede, no mean jealousy existed as to the attainments of these men, or the eminence of their country. The allusions which they make both to them and to it are frequent, and are beginning to be regarded with the same candour which is justly paid to their own acquirements. If Alcuine is admitted to have been the instructor of Charlemagne, why not admit his authority for Clement being one of his Irish assistants at Paris, and Albin at Ticinum or Pavia, the two earliest schools of learning in Europe? Whatever truth there is in the statement of Notker Balbalus, that, upon their arrival in France from Ireland, they proclaimed that they had wisdom to sell, and demanded only food and raiment for reward,”—the tradition, that they were engaged by Charles, stands on the same foundation with the best authenticated traditions of the times.t

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As for Claudius and Sedulius, these are the two natives of Ireland on whom Ussher mainly depended in his "discourse on the religion anciently professed by the Irish and British.' The commentary of Claudius on the Galatians is printed,‡ and his work on Matthew is in the British Museum.§ An ancient copy of Sedulius on the Epistles of Paul is now before me, which I have frequently consulted with pleasure.||

* Alfred's Bede, v. c. 18. Malms. de Pont. 3. Gale, 398. Turner's History, iii. 375. tWare's Writers of Ireland and others. John Mailros, a Scot, was also engaged at Ticinum.

Biblioth. Magna Patr. p. 794.

Bib. Rag. 2, c. 10 and 4, c. 8. Murat. Antiq. Ital. I. p. 814.

"Sedulii Scoti Hyberniensis, in omnesd. Pauli Epistolas Annotationes, &c. Basileæ, per Hen. Petrum, 1538." In this volume, out of ten or more authors quoted, Marcion, Aquila, Jerome, Augustine, Eusebius, Ambrose, Gennadius, &c. none are later than the end of the fifth century. Trithemius speaks of him as having come into France, then searched into Italy, Asia, and Achaia but into the controversy re

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