113 



requiring much time to bring them to perfection, and are both 

 unhkely to spring up in times of warfare and national distress; 

 hence it may not unreasonably be concluded that they had arisen 

 in earlier and more peaceful times, and were the remnants of that 

 commerce and those arts derived from eastern ancestors. For, as 

 the colonists brought with them the mode of manufacturing linen, 

 it may, without any great stretch of probability, be concluded, that 

 the Irish serge, which Spencer,* puts on a level with silk, was 

 somewhat of the soft twilled texture of those fine woollen stuffs 

 which are manufactured, and form great part of the dress of the 

 upper classes throughout Iran, and even to the shores of the 

 Bosphorus — most of the ermin lined pelisses of the Turks being 

 composed of it. 



The early learning of Ireland cannot he denied ; since, hav- 

 ing survived the era of destruction and spoliation, there are 

 now in existence many of her works, which were written when 

 Europe was immersed in darkness, and before the Saxons had 

 acquired an alphabet ; these were a rude unlettered people when 

 they invaded England, and they are said by Camden to have 

 borrowed their alphabet from the Irish, -f- there being between the 

 two only a few variations, merely enough to establish a distinct 

 dialect.:}: There not being in Germany, nor on any part of the 



Her verdant fields with milk and honey flow, 

 Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow ; 

 Her waving furrows float with bearded corn, 

 And arms and arts her envied sons adorn. 



Descrip. of Ireland by St. Donatus, Bishop of Etruria. 



• Fairie Queen, B. III. 



f Camden's Ireland, p. 68. — Spencer's View, p. 65. — Sir William Temple and Nicholson's 

 Irish Library, Pref. 12. 



J Dr. Chas. O'Connor on Ancient Alphabets 

 VOL. XV. Q 



