108 



existence, but given us their description and history. He would 

 have told us where and when they were discovered, in what measure 

 the poems were composed, and in what dialect, whether in the Bearla 

 Feine, the dialect of the learned, or of the Bearla rustach, the dia- 

 lect of the vulgar. Let us see how a writer who has such a MS. 

 proceeds. He tells distinctly all he knows concerning it, or at least 

 all that is necessary to be known ; where found, and where to be 

 seen; on what substance, and in what form written; the language, 

 the character, the number of pages, whether entire or mutilated. 



Thus Doctor O'Conor speaks of the Codex Stowensis, No. I. : 



" Codex membranaceus est, in TVto ; lingua et characteribus Hibernicis. Constat foliis 

 42, quorum quwque pagina duobus columnis divisa est. Desunt folia nonnulla in initio et 

 in fine, unde difficUe est dictu quo aevo exaratus fuerit. » • • » * Characteres sunt 

 rotundi, nitidi, elegantes. Literamm et atramenti talis est uniformitas, et pulchritude, ut 

 vix cedat arti typographicae, et atramentum aetemitati sacrum videatur. Litera u nuUibi scri- 

 bitur forma angulari v, sire consonans, sive vocalis, neque unquam duplicatur ut w. Litera i 

 nuUo puncto, nulla aspiratione supra notata designatur. Nullibi extat litera j consonans, 

 vel y, vel <e dipthongus ; nee quaevis est punctuatio praeter punctum simplex. Numeri sunt 

 ubique Romani." 



He then proceeds to analyze the contents ; in which task we deem 

 it unnecessary to follow him. We shall only repeat how he describes 

 the external form of a poem in this MS, : 



"Fol. 7. p. 2. col. 1. a poem commences, Torinis, Inis an tuir, cathair Conain, (Torinig, 

 insula turns, arx Conani.) It consists of forty-eight lines, each of which, by a rhythmical me. 

 thod peculiar to the Irish, is resolvable into two lines or one distich, the rhythm in the middle 

 of the line corresponding and harmonizing with the last syllable in the end." 



He afterwards gives us a history of the rhythmic art among the 

 Irish, commencing page Ixvi. of the second of his Prolegomena. As 

 this topic is so intimately connected with the subject of this Essay, 



