OBSERVATIONS oz the ROMANTIC HISTORY of IRELAND. 
By the Rev. EDWARD LEDWICH, L.L.B. M.R.I.A. and 
F. A. 8. of London and Scotland. 
W uen we review the remote hiftories of England, Scotland 
and Ireland, and find names and faéts delivered with unhefitating 
confidence and chronological accuracy, it feems, at firft fight, an 
unreafonable degree of fcepticifm to withhold our affent from 
them, or queftion their authenticity ; and yet they are but fpe- 
cious delufions, and fome of the numberlefs vagaries of the human. 
mind... 
To the unfufpeAing candour of mankind thefe plaufible fables 
muft always appear genuine records, nor can their magic influence 
be removed but by the fevere fcrutiny of learning and criticifm. 
A nation emerging from incivility and ignorance reluctantly gives 
up the fictions of poets and genealogifts, becaufe they are the only 
“vouchers for antient anceftry, and the only evidences of extina 
national honour.. But when that nation arrives at higher degrees 
of improvement and polifh, thefe phantoms vanifh, and indivi- 
duals 
Read Oftober 
22) 1791, 
