PLYMOUTH INSTITynON. 69 



On the wcUtrn shore, where dwell an almost unmixed descent 

 of aboriginal Irish ; the people differ widely fi*om their country- 

 men in the east; they are less turbulent, more patient, and easy 

 to be led. Here we have found the heart and genius of an Oliver 

 Goldsmith ; men who possess the elements of untutored genius, 

 imagination, feeling, thoughtfulness,and kindness of heart. But 

 in that part of the island, where there is a mingled population, we 

 experience something of ferocity of character — an unquiet spirit. 



And the poet Spenser, who held an estate in Ireland, and 

 resided there, expressly says, "the chiefest abuses which are now 

 in the realm of Ireland, are grown from the English settlers; and 

 the English are more difficult to govern than the Irish." 



The Irish were remarkable in early times, for their skill in 

 music, according to the simple science of those early ages ; in 

 the accounts and praises of Cambrensis, of Polydon Virgil, of 

 Galileei, and even of Handel. " 



LEARNING. 



Ireland is known to have excelled all the other countries of 

 Europe in literature, for four successive centuries, and to have 

 been the school of learning during all that time. The venerable 

 Bede bears testimony to the truth of this assertion. And so 

 much esteemed was learning in that country, that the most 

 indulgent privileges were yielded to the literati : their persons, 

 lives, and properties were held sacred and inviolable in the tur- 

 moil of contending and hostile warfare ; and a remnant of this 

 reverence for the superior cultivation of the human intellect pre- 

 vailed, in three of the provinces, to the reign of Charles the first; 

 nor is this love of literature yet entirely obliterated : we find very 

 many of the lowest peasantry/ of Munster, and of Cormaught, ■ 

 classically iriformedfand speak latin, and can translate the classics 

 with fluency and grammatical precision. Sir James Ware, in his 

 "Antiquities of Ireland, '^ has given a long and numerous detail of 

 authors of the first class. 



Only a few^ memorials of this literature can now be easily 

 found, because the Danes, in their barbarous pillage, destroyed 

 or took away all the monuments of learning, which fell within 

 their grasp ; and, afterwards the Norman invaders from England, 

 in a spirit of evil policy, completely plundered her documents^ 

 and destroyed, as far as they could, every trace and vestige of 

 antiquity and ancient fame. Literary documents of Irish genius 

 are scattered about in libraries of De^nmark, France, Italy, and 

 private repositories, but closed up in disregarded obscurity. 



