81 
them is said to be greater than that of the largest of the Hebrides.’* 
Such are the opinions of an intelligent Scotsman. They shew the in- 
terest strangers can take, even to minuteness, in our neglected topo- 
grapliy—and they ought to excite, one would suppose, an active 
‘spirit of inquiry among ourselves. The present account of the Isles 
of Aran is an humble commencement—calculated, - it is hoped, to 
manifest to our learned Societies, and to the State, the utility of 
publishing accurate Surveys of the islands situated on the Irish 
coasts. I believe Government contemplates a general Survey of 
Ireland, including all the islands; and, I trust, that this national 
project will be thoroughly and speedily executed. 
We may, on a broader view, be allowed to observe, that islands, 
generally, ‘supply the most satisfactory means of archaiological ac- 
quirement. They have been the early retreats of the peaceful, the 
contemplative, and the learned ; sequestered and undisturbed, they 
have preserved much of the moral and physical remains of the an- 
cient world. In these retired abodes, almost cut off from social 
innovations, we frequently meet the most genuine monuments of 
antiquity, including whatever is primitive and unmixed in the exist- 
ing dialects, manners, and institutions of the continental nations. 
Crete was the famed nursery and school of the Titan Kings—and 
Mona the distinguished seat of Druidic learning. In antiquity and 
respectability of name, colonization, and character, these celebrated 
Isles are not superior to Ireland—the Jerne of Aristotle—the 
Ogygia of Plutarch—the Sacra Insula of Avienus. Gaul, Spain, 
Britain, and the other Celtic states, have lost all their records of re- 
mote antiquity; Ireland has lost some; but she has also preserved 
some, unquestionable in historic evidence, and illustrative not only 
n 2 
* Memorial, &c. p, 33. 
