26 PAPERS, ETC. 



It is so, likewise, with the objects with which the science 

 of Archseology is concerned. The ruined Abbey, the 

 vacant hearth of the Baronial Hall, the crumbling turret 

 of the battlemented Castle, the mystic enclosure of Druidic 

 worship, the worn-out traces of the hut-circles of our Keltlc 

 ancestors, are to the thoughtful observer lasting memorials 

 füll of interest and significance in the social history of our 

 race and our country. They help us to realise and in im- 

 agination to reproduce the various phases of social and 

 religious life which have "prevailed from age to age. They 

 constitute the leading elements in the tableaux on the 

 great diorama of our National History, presenting to us 

 successively the sublime, and, what I believe to have been, 

 the simple and purely monotheistic worship of our Keltic 

 forefathers, the idolatry and refinement of the Roman in- 

 vaders, the lordly State of the barons, the learning and 

 charity of the monks, whosc cloisters and whose cclls in 

 ruined abbey s become associated in our minds with the 

 patient toil to which we are indebted for those invaluable 

 manuscripts which open to us the treasures of classic and 

 of sacred lore. 



With associations like these, I maintain, that the anti- 

 quary is no Dryasdust, the geologist no dreamer. It is 

 this which makes our Museum a Condensed history of the 

 county. If I may be allowed to intrude upon my hearers 

 my own personal experience and sentiments in this 

 matter, I would assure you that I seldom enter into the 

 Museum of the Society without having reproduced vividly 

 to my mind some one or other of the thousand stirring 

 scenes and stupendous events which stand out prominently 

 in the history of the world. Each case has its wonders, 

 each object its tale. The monumental rubbings on the 

 wall, the sculptured figures, royal and ecclesiastic, the 



