OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, 1846. 463 



important work of Mr. Petrie, on the Ecclesiastical Architecture 

 of Ireland, which has been referred to in the recent Eeport of 

 your Council, and which forms, as you know, the last volume of 

 your Transactions. Of the value of that work we should judge in- 

 adequately, were we to confine our view to the light which it has 

 thrown upon the subject discussed ; it is, perhaps, still more valu- 

 able as an example of the mode of dealing with Antiquarian ques- 

 tions, and of the evidences which may be brought to bear in their 

 investigation. 



The study of Irish Antiquities will, there can be no doubt, re- 

 ceive both aid and impulse from the institution of your Museum, a 

 collection well worthy of this Academy, and of this country. It 

 may be rash in one wholly unacquainted with the subject, as I am, 

 to offer any suggestion respecting it ; yet I cannot but think that 

 much more may be done, in advancing our knowledge of Antiqui- 

 ties generally, and especially of that higher department of it which 

 borders so closely upon History, the distribution of the early 

 races of mankind, by the comparison of our own Monuments, and 

 other relics of early civilisation, with those of other countries. The 

 information we gather from a cairn, a torque, or a spear-head, 

 will then no longer be limited to the light which they may throw 

 upon the arts and manners of our Celtic ancestors. We may 

 obtain from them a knowledge of the geographical distribution of 

 their various tribes, much in the same manner as the geologist 

 recognises the fragments of one of the great formations which com- 

 pose the earth's crust by the comparison of their imbedded fossils ; 

 we may approach the history of their families, and trace them up 

 to the parent stock. Studied with this reference, Antiquities may, 

 perhaps in an important degree, tend to advance the science of 

 Ethnology ; and be combined with the study of Language, and of 

 Physiological characters, as a new instrument in its research. 



GENTLEMEN, I fear I have already trespassed too long upon 

 your time. But I desire, before I conclude, to offer a few remarks 

 upon the future advancement of the objects of the Academy, and 

 upon some of the modes by which it may be accelerated. 



The first and chief of these, beyond all question, is rapid 

 publication. It is not to be expected that men, who find a reward 

 for their toils in the sympathy with which they are hailed by 

 those engaged elsewhere in the same pursuits it is not to be 



