O^DriacoVs Views oj Ireland. 



617 



enclose, oalciilatcd lo soothe and to 

 clierisli that disposition of Iho mind, 

 and that arrangement of tlie feelings 

 which lead away from flic world we in- 

 habit, fixing our alfections upon the pasl, 

 or invol\ing us in airy visions of the fu- 

 ture. The s|)iril of tiris busy world 

 walks upon the cast coast of the island, 

 wilh his head full of rumours, and his 

 liands lull of employment. But on 

 those sliorcs that look over the great 

 \\'^es(ern Ocean, stillness aud fhouglitful- 

 tiess lake their way, and impress upon 

 ihe people a widely different character. 

 Here we meet, at every step, a wild and 

 fantastic luxuriance of iningination, — 

 the literary genius of the bog, and the 

 poet of the glen and the mountain ; rude, 

 and often ludicrous, indications of the 

 native richness of the soil. 



South of the Shannon, where it bends 

 to meet the Atlantic, and stretching into 

 the counties of Kerry and Cork, the same 

 moral character is preserved, and the 

 same physical aspect is maintained. 



ANTIQUITY. 



TJut" before the English connection, 

 thoroughly established, gave a local im- 

 portance to the eastern shores of the 

 island, the west and south-western coast 

 aj)pears to have enjoyed its natural pre- 

 eminence. It is circled with a line of 

 ancient castles on (he main land and on 

 the islands, which shew that these tine 

 jiosilions were at one time valued and 

 used as nalun: intended. 'J^heold Irish, 

 liowevcr, ajipear to have had an indis- 

 position to trade, which could hardly be 

 expected in the descendants of the ce- 

 lebrated traders of T^re, "the mart of 

 nations, the crowning city, whose mer- 

 chants are piinees, whose trafliekers are 

 the honourable of the earth." 'I'hat the 

 Irish «('re an liastern colony admits, we 

 think, little doubt, and this too will ac- 

 count for the degree of knowledge and 

 refincnnnit which they posscsscil at a very 

 early period, and which were lost in 

 the overwhelming calamities of the 

 Country. 



Iieland is Mdniilted to have possessed 

 an early knowledge and love of letters ; 

 lo have received Christianity with rea- 

 diness, and to have imbibed its spiiit 

 with a /.eal and <levolion whi<:li entitled 

 it to the high appellation of the " Island 

 of Saiirts." 'I'hutfew ininiorials remain 

 of that eminence which was the theme 

 of her bar<ls and annali.sis is not surpri- 

 sing, when we conitidr.T that she has en- 

 jo3ed no peace "that could be called 

 j)eace" lor (he last thousand years ; that, 



MuNTiitY Mac. No. 384. 



dur,ing this period she has been three 

 limes a wooded wilderness, and three 

 times the plough has j)assed over, even 

 her high liills. Her architectural an- 

 tiquities are of no very remote date, 

 frequently overturned and renewed in 

 basic, and somctijiesof necessity aban- 

 doned in the building, they furnish proofs 

 only of the cllbrtsand the exhausted state 

 of the country. And Ireland conies 

 before us now still engaged in struggles, 

 far behind Great Britain in the race of 

 l)ower and prosperity, and yet her eldest 

 sister : the Ogygia of the ancients, 

 the oldest and the newest country in 

 Europe.* 



IRISH CHAKACTER. 



There is a character peculiar to Hie 

 different races of men, which is not en- 

 tirely effaced even by great intermixture. 

 There is also a eharaeier which aj)pears 

 in some mysterious manner incident to 

 the soil. The nortiiern Irish, who still 

 preserve much of the colour of their 

 Scottish original, and even tlie Irish of 

 Cromwellian race, who are hardly yet 

 Irish in feeling, are strongly marked with 

 the great lineaments of the nation. As 

 the Saxons communicated to the Nor- 

 mans the great features of their character, 

 so the old Irish race have impressed 

 u])on their British invaders the outlines 

 of their lineage. The triumph of cha- 

 racter has surjiassed the triumph of 

 arms. 



If we would know the genius of a 

 people, we must attend to what they 

 have said, and how they have spoken. 

 Wlien Ireland revived, after a short 

 breathing, Iroiii the state of wretchedness 

 and exhaustion, in which her civil wars 

 had left her, and had shaken off, in lier 

 first rousiiigs, a jiorlion of the penal and 

 disaljliiig laws which oppressed her, the 

 S])irit of the nation found utterance, and 

 spoke with the mouths of Burke, and 

 Gratlan, and Cunan, and Swiff. Like 

 one who had long been dumb, and in 

 despair, she s))(jke rapidly, and with 

 great power. A crowd of mighty minds 

 were filled with her new-found energy. 

 The sjii.it of her sweetest muse dwelt 

 in (he simple and amiable Goldsmith. 

 His poe(r3, as jiolislied as Pojjo's, has 

 inliiiKely more of tenderness and feeling. 

 In I'ope we sec the art and the artist ; 

 in (joldsmith we discern nothing bu( tho 

 subject that is before us, and the simple 

 sweetness 



* Mr. O'Driseol seems to have liad hi 

 view the extraordinary Chronicles lately 

 ptibiished by ftlr. O'Coniiei, noticed in a 

 turnicr iSupplenient. 



4K 



