105 
«< If the work be definitely lost, the loss is in many respects 
irreparable. When Colgan compiled it, and others collected 
for it over the Continent, above two hundred years ago, how 
many a historical tradition was living in the great old monas- 
tic institutions of which our pious countrymen were the ve- ~ 
nerated founders in France, in Belgium, in Switzerland, in 
Germany, and even in Italy itself! Those reverend memories 
have long since perished with the institutions themselves; and 
many a rich store of charters treasured there has been hope- 
lessly scattered or destroyed by the profane and savage hand 
of ungodly revolution and war. No future compiler can ever 
fill up the blank left in Irish ecclesiastical history by the loss 
of this noble record. The ‘ Gesta Dei per Ibernos’—the action 
of our missionary countrymen upon the civilization of modern 
Europe, can never be so gloriously proven. 
‘¢ Some chances still appear to remain of its existence. A 
learned French ecclesiastic, conversant with such matters, 
whose studies frequently bring him to the MSS. department 
of the Imperial Library in Paris, suggests to me the possibi- 
lity of this work having been taken thither during the former 
French occupation of Rome, as containing matter touching 
upon the history of France. He has offered me his services 
to make search for it there on his return to Paris; I fear, 
however, there are but slight grounds to hope it may be found 
there. 
“‘ But another circumstance gives me a brighter: ray of 
hope. A complete autograph exemplar of the Four Masters 
formerly belonged to St. Isidore’s: the first volume is still 
preserved there; the second is in the rich library of Prince 
Barberini: how or when it made its way there nobody 
ean tell me. The MSS. in the Barberini Library are un- 
digested, and the catalogue is only now being made out. 
May not this missing work of Colgan’s have found its way, 
VOL. VI. I 
