Ill 



the Irish bards, who, when instructed in the Christian reUgion, and 

 a knowledge of the Latin tongue, deemed it a duty of sacred obhga- 

 tion to deliver the precepts of the new faith in the same style as they 

 had been accustomed to employ in delivering the precepts of the 

 Druids, and celebrating the heroic deeds of their countrymen. Tur- 

 ner subjoins, that " Albinus quotes a rhymed poem of Sedulius, an 

 Irishman, who lived in the middle of the fifth century ;" and Bede 

 says, that Adhelm wrote verses in imitation (ad exe?nplum) of Sedu- 

 lius. Turner affirms, and Usher demonstrates, that this Sedulius was 

 an Irishman. Bayle and Labbe hold a different opinion, but it is 

 supported by no authority, while that of Usher is confirmed by the 

 testimony of Fabricius, Possevinus, Trithemius, Sixtus Senensis, Bel- 

 larmine, and Cave. But independently of such testimonies, the 

 name of Sedulius alone, which is exclusively Hibernian, is sufficient 

 authority. There were eight men of the name of Sedulius, all of 

 them conspicuous for their piety and learning, as is attested by the 

 Annals of Innisfail, of the Four Masters, and Tigernach. 



No better specimen of the rhyming form of poetry, peculiar to 

 Ireland, can be adduced, than the following lines from a hymn of 

 Sedulius : 



"A solis ortus cardme — ad usque terrae lixnilem, 

 Christum canamus principem — natum Maria \irgine." 



Nothing of the kind extant is more ancient than this. The Latin 

 missionaries who crowded to Ireland borrowed the practice, and 

 thence it became general. 



That the ancient Irish had fixed rules of poetry, is incontestible. 

 They sang their lays to the sound of the harp, in presence of 

 their chiefs. Buchanan and Camden both agree, that many of the 



