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CONCLUSION. 



I H AVE arrived at the close of my labours ; I have encountered a 

 few cloudy positions ; I have struggled through some litigated ques- 

 tions ; I have travelled over many a dusty — many a worm-eaten 

 folio ; but in the inquiry after the external evidences of Irish history, 

 arts, and sciences, my path has presented many a cheering interval 

 of sunshine and flowers. I have wandered up the course of long un- 

 noted years ; I have looked back into the works with which my 

 boyhood was conversant; I have recalled the associates — the play- 

 mates — the friends of my youth — all on whom the innocence of early 

 affection was spontaneously diffiised. The retrospect has abounded 

 with many a moral gratification, whether it has been equally produc- 

 tive to the subject, which I have attempted to illustrate, is for others 

 than myself to judge. 



I will at least with confidence aflSrm, that I have thoroughly exa- 

 mined every standard work, that could in the time have been accessi- 

 ble ; and that I have not relied on a single citation, without myself 

 exploring the source and credibility of its authority. But after all, 

 what can be expected from the literature of foreign languages, but the 

 hearsay fragments of those who have never visited the country, or the 

 interested suggestions of these who have. It is in the annals, the 

 poetry, the laws, the synods of Ireland, the decrees of her councils, 

 the rules of her monks, the registries of her churches, and the lives 

 of her bishops and saints, that the speaking evidences of her former 



