331 
rary associate, Dr. Grimm, recently applied to us for information 
on a question of great interest, respecting the ancient forms, or what 
he conjectures to have been ancient forms of some Celtic dialect, he 
found us unable to reply. 
The fact is, and the admission is not without humiliation,—the 
study of the Irish language, even with the limited object of historical 
research, is still confined to but few of our Members; and, although 
the Academy, at a very early period of its labours, zealously directed 
their attention to this subject, and were seconded also by the Royal 
Dublin Society, but little was effected, owing to the great dearth of 
competent scholars, capable of sucha task.* The learned historian 
of Galway, whose loss we have had so lately to deplore, was one of the 
first within our own recollection to draw our attention to the subject, 
byastep in the right direction—the publication, in our Transactions, 
of a curious collection of Irish deeds, and afterwards by the inde- 
pendent publication of his Irish Minstrelsy. Dr. Petrie, also, from 
time to time, brought before us many ancient relics in our Celtic 
language, and employed them in illustration of our history and anti- 
quities, as, for example, in his invaluable Paper on the History of 
Tara Hill. But the largest contribution made of late years to this 
branch of literature we owe to the labours of the Irish Archzologi- 
cal and Celtic Society. This Society is to our Committees of Polite 
Literature and Antiquities what the Geological and Natural History 
Societies are to our Committee of Science:—an ancilla, to use a 
Baconian phrase, associated for carrying out more effectually one of 
the most imperative duties of this Academy. To all such Societies 
we should give the right hand of fellowship; we should consider 
them, in fact, as parts of the Academy, and their labours as our 
labours, seeing that these Societies are worked, for the most part, 
by our own Members. It is true, the publications of the Archzolo- 
gical and Celtic Society are mainly intended for the illustration of 
the history, genealogy, and topography of Ireland, but they must 
also be considered as an important contribution to the philology 
and lexicography of the Irish branch of the Celtic family of lan- 
err 
* See a short account of what was attempted, in the Preface to vol. 1. of 
the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. 
