375 



laconic without obscurity, nervous, figurative, and pathetic ;"* and 

 that "in it are compositions of sublime sentiment, nervous expressions, 

 and others of tenderness and simplicity unequalled. "-f* i 



With such a language as the grand medium of research, with such 

 interesting subjects, such authentic evidences, such accessible mate- 

 rials as Ireland offers, with such capabilities of foreign and classic 

 illustration as it has been the endeavour of this Essay to exhibit, is it 

 not a paradox in the republic of letters, that, while almost every town- 

 land in the sister island has its historian and commemorator, no high 

 road has yet been opened to the history of the former country, that 

 all knowledge of those revolutions, which, as a popular Review re- 

 marks, |. " hold out lessons far more precious, far more forcible, and 

 far more immediately applicable than all that is elsewhere recorded in 

 the annals of mankind," is yet only snatched in paths and by-ways, 

 and this, though tiiere is no other point of literature regarding the 

 British empire so interesting, so national, so needed. § How much 



• Warner, vol. i. p. 67. 



f Highland Report on Ossian, p. 25. We will add ibr the curious reader the observa- 

 tion of Peter Lombard, which is, perhaps, like many others on Ireland, more ancient than 

 antiquated. — "Dialecti quidem variatio ita se habere passim aestimatur, ut cum sint quatuor 

 Hibemiae provinciae, penes Conactes sint et potestas rectae pronunciationis et phraseos vera 

 proprietas ; penes Momonienses potestas sine proprietale, penes Ultones proprietas sine potes- 

 tate, penes Lagenos nee potestas pronunciationis nee phraseos proprietas." — De Reg. Hib. 

 Com. p. 7. 1 



t Edinburgh Review, vol. xlvi. p. 433. 



§ It is a matter not less of wonder than regret, that among the professorships appointed in 

 the University of Dublin, none has been assigned (or the History or Antiquities of Ireland. 

 The spirit of the times, however, when Trinity College was founded, (see ante, p. 370.) may be 

 a retrospective justification, but it should be so no longer ; and we do confidently hope that 

 learned body will ere long, by a vigilant selection, redeem themselves from reproach, and the 

 inestimable treasures of their library and manuscript rooms from oblivion and decay. We at 

 least foreshew their duty to any future colleges, or literary institutions that may be established. 

 There is not wanting a harvest for the labourer, but a labourer for the harvest. 



