viii PREFACE. 



For the object which this work is intended to effect, as well as the spirit 

 in which it is conducted, I trust I may lay claim to some praise, the pursuit of 

 truth being never lost sight of. Dr. Johnson, with his characteristic wisdom, 

 observes, iA one of his letters to the celebrated Charles O'Conor : " Dr. Leland 

 begins his History too late : the ages which deserve an exact inquiry are 

 those, for such there were, when Ireland was the school of the west, the quiet 

 habitation of sanctity and literature. If you would give a history, though im- 

 perfect, 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." 



It is scarcely necessary for me to say that I am not vain enough to suppose 

 that I have supplied the desideratum in our history which Dr. Johnson has 

 thus ably pointed out. Yet, as the antiquary is the necessary pioneer to the his- 

 torian, clearing the path before him, and often opening out vistas of the distant 

 country, without which he would have to explore his way through the wilderness 

 of time in doubt and difficulty, if not in darkness, so, I may, as I trust, with- 

 out presumption, venture to hope that my humble labours will not be without 

 some value as contributing to that object. What, I may ask, would we know 

 of the true greatness of the Greeks or Egyptians if we were unacquainted with 

 their ancient monuments ? What do we know of the Etruscans but what we 

 have derived*from this source ? and, may I not add, would not an erroneous 

 conclusion, such as so many have laboured to establish, as to the indefinite 

 antiquity and uses of the Irish Round Towers, while it was suffered to pass 

 without correction, necessarily pervert, and give a colouring of falsehood to 

 the whole stream of Irish history, and lead to the reception, in the public 

 mind, of the most visionary notions of the ancient civilization and importance 

 of the country ? 



