xlviii 



RISE AND PROGRESS 



of her scholastic greatness, from the mission of 

 St Patrick * to the ninth century, the Fileas or 

 Bards of that island, roused by her growing 

 intercourse with the rest of Europe, must have 

 made a simultaneous progress in their vernacular 

 literature. But their literature is now one of 

 memories and fragments ; more fitted to kindle 

 the fine fancy of their legitimate descendant, 

 than to arrest our onward march. As we draw 

 near the date of the English invasion,f other 

 fragments of the same class possess a stronger 

 interest : since it seems to be ascertained that 

 these, in conjunction, perhaps, with some remains 

 of Gaelic song, supplied a basis for the splendid 

 imposture of Macpherson. We turn, with a 

 blush, from the many dismal consequences of 

 English rule over the Irish people. It is painful 

 to reflect that the Reformation itself, an event 

 which falls within the opening of our second 

 modern period, at first conduced only to the 

 further depression of their country : but, ere that 

 period ends, we shall have to mark the revival of 

 letters and of science as one of the fruits of Pro- 

 testant colonization in Ireland. 



II. The REFORMATION of religion was not the 

 only cause, at the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, which hurried on a general advance of 

 the human mind and a full development of its 

 resources. Before that great event, the rage of 

 feudal contentions, after lingering too long in 

 many countries, had begun to subside. In Spain 

 and France the kingly power, raised to a com- 

 manding pitch, enabled its possessors to con- 

 centrate the energies of their subjects, and to act 

 and war upon an ample theatre. The Papal 

 influence was on the decline; and Rome had 

 ceased to be the point of gravitation in European 

 politics. In England civil broils had been at 

 length exchanged for internal order : Germany, 

 for a season, tasted the same blessing. The use 

 of gunpowder gave to warfare a more regular 

 and less savage character than heretofore ; and 

 cabinet-intrigues, whose birth-place was Italy, 

 exercised a sway commensurate with that of 

 arms. Now, too, the different states of Europe, 

 not isolated as they were wont to be, were drawn 

 by friendship or enmity into a number of close 

 relations. And, though many convulsive shocks 

 resulted from this approximation, as one country 

 after another became the scene of military move- 

 ments, yet, in spite of partial interruptions, the 

 scholar and the merchant, the artist and the 

 manufacturer, carried on their useful competi- 

 tion ; travellers, voyagers, adventurers, continued 

 to bring home with them accounts and specimens 



of all that nature or industry had done for man 

 in the remotest parts of the earth ; and knowledge 

 and intelligence spread throughout the principal 

 members of the European family. 



For, this was likewise an era of maritime dis- 

 coveries. Columbus crossed the Atlantic ocean. J 

 Vasco de Gama opened a passage by sea to the 

 East Indies.^ The world was circumnavigated. || 

 W hat an enlargement of science, what a change 

 in mental cultivation, could not fail to flow from 

 such magnificent achievements! New ideas 

 streamed in from each newly visited region : 

 the mistakes of former ignorance and credulity 

 were unveiled ; and thenceforth it was more easy 

 to conquer prejudice and to dispel error. 



Though of all the slowest and most reluctant 

 to retire, even religious errors were dissipated 

 and driven from their ground. ^[ Luther, Melan- 

 chthon, Zuinglius, Calvin, and their disciples, 

 collecting into a focus the straggling beams of 

 truth, " lighted a candle, which, by God's help, 

 shall never be extinguished."** Then was priest- 

 craft overthrown by the bible. Then were the 

 means of education purified and multiplied. 

 Then was reason invited to that alliance with 

 faith, in which the peculiar provinces and the 

 mutual dependence of both are best seen ; and 

 freedom of thought, once trained to wrestle in 

 the Christian arena, gradually extended its 

 dominion along all paths that can be travelled 

 by the human understanding. From that day to 

 this, unchecked by temporary difficulties, return- 

 ing rapidly from every deviation, intellect has 

 advanced with an erect port, and a firm step. 

 Triumphing over the wiles of jesuitstry and the 

 flames of persecution, the genius of Protestantism 

 has diffused countless benefits even throughout 

 lands which adhere to the creed and rites of 

 popery. Literature received from it an imme- 

 diate and invigorating impulse. The vernacular 

 dialects were cultivated, in some countries, with 

 fresh animation, and took into their very substance 

 the energy of those bold champions, who employed 

 them in the defence or inculcation of their doc- 

 trines. The knowledge of the ancient tongues 

 was prized and promoted as indispensably 

 necessary for the critical interpretation of scrip- 

 ture. 



The revival of ancient literature had been 

 going on for more than a hundred years before 

 the Reformation. Dante called Virgil his 

 master; and we have already glanced at the 

 learned labours and enthusiasm of Petrarch. 



* A. D. 422. 



+ A. D. 1170. 



t A. D. 1492. A. D. 1498. II A. D. 1522. 



t The Reformation, A. D. 1517. 

 ** These are the memorable words of an English reformer. 



