82 



NA TURE 



[November 28, 1895 



sei-ve the educational freshness of the central authority, 

 and fimit within reasonable bounds the display by it of 

 those pecuharities which are too frequently manifest in all 

 official bodies ; through such a body, the interest of the 

 Minister, and through him of the country at large, in cur- 

 tent educational problems would be awakened and main- 

 tained, and he would become fully open to influence from 

 without ; at the same time, it should minimise the 

 tendency to subordinate educational to pohtical interests. 

 But to secure these ends, the Council must contain a 

 large professional element, and its members must not in 

 any case be mere men of affairs, but fully acquainted 

 with educational requirements. 



It is impossible now to discuss the remaining recom- 

 mendations. 



At the outset, the Commissioners state that they have 

 felt very strongly the need of dispatch, in order that 

 the country may without delay derive advantage from 

 legislation framed on proper lines. It is to be supposed 

 that the late Government would have acted promptly in 

 the matter, and it is to be hoped that its successors will 

 be at once ready to appreciate the vast importance to our 

 nation of well-considered legisla- 

 tion in the direction of the scheme 

 put forward by the Commissioners. 

 It would probably be difficult to 

 prepare one in which due provision 

 is more fully made to conserve 

 what is good in our present system, 

 while permitting the fullest play to 

 the agencies which determine pro- 

 gress. 



To conclude, in the eloquent final 

 words of the Report, "it is not 

 merely in the interest of the material 

 prosperity and intellectual activity 

 ■of the nation, but no less in that of 

 its happiness and its moral strength, 

 that the extension and reorganisa- 

 tion of secondary education seem 

 entitled to a place among the first 

 subjects with which social legisla- 

 tion ought to deal." 



Henry E. Arm.strong. 



which are the result of the handiwork of the aborigines 

 illustrate, with much exactitude, life in the olden days. . . . 

 If material objects be accepted as proofs of the pagan 

 ! ideas and customs of the aborigines, surely the evidence 

 t of still existent superstitious observances of the peasantry, 

 which can be traced to a pre-Christian source, ought to 

 be received with, at least, the same authority. ... It is 

 to be hoped that research into the past, on these lines, 

 may contribute to the reconstruction of early history." 

 This is a sound method of treating architology,; our 

 author clearly recognises that the value of archaeology, 

 whether it be of objects made by mar, or of folk-lore, 

 lies in the use to which it can be put in deciphering the 

 early history of man, and he admits that in Ireland "we 

 have made but little progress in higher scientific archseo- 

 logy ; and the ancient antiquities of Ireland still remain 

 in an unclassified condition." This is a refreshing 

 admission, and the justification of this statement is only 

 too apparent to those who know the present unintelligent 

 arrangement of the magnificent collections of the Royal 

 Irish Academy, now housed in the Dublin Science and Art 

 Museum. The splendid opportunities for archaeological 



PAGAN IRELAND} 

 n^O Colonel Wood-Martin is due 

 -^ the credit of the first attempt 

 to co-ordinate the vast stores 

 of archaeological lore which lie 

 buried in the publications of the 



various Irish societies. The subject is a really fine 

 one, and it was time that the data of Irish archaeo- 

 logy should be collated and presented in a convenient 

 form. This the author has accomplished. There are 

 two ways of regarding a book : the one is to expect the 

 author to write the book in the way you (whoever " you " 

 may happen to be) would like to have it written, and the 

 other is the acceptance of the author's position, and to 

 deal with the work from that point of view. It is not 

 <iifficult to discover the ideals which the author has in 

 this instance placed before himself " In order to arrive 

 at the truth, it is desirable to test the opinions and con- 

 clusions of those who, by a careful analysis of the 

 probabilities and facts recorded by them, have travelled 

 over the same ground before. . . . Antiquarian research 

 in Ireland may, with advantage, be directed towards 

 fining, in the social history of primitive man ; articles 



1 "Pagan Ireland, an Archaeological Sketch. A Handbook of Irish Pre- 

 ■Christian Antiquities." By W. G. Wood-Martin, M.R.I. A., author of " The 

 Lake Dwellings of Ireland," " The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland," &c. 

 •689 pp., 410 figs., and map. (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895.) 



NO. I 36 I, VOL. 53] 



Legananny Cromleac, Castlewell.-in, Co. Down, 10 feet in height. (From Welch's Irish views.) 



research which exist in Ireland, are woefully neglected, 

 and it is to be hoped that Colonel Wood-Martin's book 

 will serve to stimulate an interest in this fascinating and 

 promising field of inquiry. We are glad to note that he 

 refers to the " vandalism " of the Board of Works with 

 regard to ancient monuments ; but a great deal more 

 has yet to be said on this subject. 



In his chapters on "Early History," " The Disposal 

 of the Dead — Were the Aborigines Cannibals?" and 

 "Traces of the Elder Faiths," the author deals with 

 customs and beliefs as recorded in ancient accounts, or 

 as witnessed for by actual remains, or as perpetuated in 

 an attenuated form in folk-custom. The facts here 

 collected together are most interesting, and throw con- 

 siderable light on the early social condition of Ireland, 

 a good deal of which will be new to the ordinary reader. 



The author is very weak in his account of the ethnology 

 of ancient Ireland ; but this is a matter in which the 

 author, not being a professed anthropologist, is not so 

 much to blame, and there is yet much investigation 

 to be' done before we can speak with certitude. At 



