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guage. They have preserved and put forward, in a form easily ac- 
cessible, a body of Irish literature, with accurate translations and 
critical apparatus, which cannot but afford valuable facilities to 
the future student of the language, and will undoubtedly contribute 
greatly to spread a knowledge of that language amongst philologi- 
cal inquirers. 
There is, however, another project originated by this Society, to 
which I look forward as likely to give the most valuable impulse to the 
study of Celtic philology, and which I would earnestly recommend 
to the Academy, as an object eminently deserving of their coun- 
tenance and support: I allude to the design of compiling and 
publishing a complete Dictionary of the Irish language. For this 
great national and literary undertaking the most ample materials 
have already been collected. All that is wanted is such encourage- 
ment and support from you and from the public as may render it 
possible to complete the publication without pecuniary loss or risk 
to those engaged in it. The labours of the Brehon Law Commis- 
sion (a Commission, be it remembered, the importance of which 
was first urged upon Government by a memorial from this Aca- 
demy) will supply a most valuable mass of materials to this 
great work. By the admirable arrangements adopted from the 
commencement of their labours, by the intelligence of their in- 
defatigable Secretary, who is, I rejoice to say, also your Secre- 
tary; and by the application (under his superintendence) of the 
Anastatic press to the multiplication of copies of the transcripts 
made from the original MSS., a complete index will be formed, 
arranged alphabetically, of all the passages of the Laws, containing 
any obscure, or remarkable, or technical word ; and the juxtaposi- 
tion of these passages cannot fail to throw great light upon the 
meaning of such words, and will, probably, in a great majority of 
cases, make that meaning perfectly clear and certain. 
But, besides this, the unceasing diligence of our most eminent 
Irish scholar, Mr. Curry, has collected, during the last quarter of a 
century, a still more important mass of materials. Mr. Curry has 
been in the habit of noting down, in the course of his extensive 
reading, every remarkable word that presented itself to him, tran- 
scribing the passage in which it occurs, and then arranging the 
