( xiii ) 



fact to fact. The last words of Petrie, when speaking on this subject, 

 were : " The true archaeologist will every clay lean more and more 

 away from extremes in antiquity." 



When considering the best practical method of furthering such 

 aims as the archaeologist should place before him, the subject of 

 the preservation of national monuments must not be passed over. 

 You are aware that the provisions of the Irish Church Act have 

 placed in the hands of the Church Commissioners the guardianship of 

 all ecclesiastical structures M^hich have fallen into disuse as places of 

 worship and may be considered worthy of preservation as national 

 monuments, and they have, in accordance with the provisions of the 

 Act referred to, vested in the Board of Work ssuch buildings as 

 those at Cashel, Ardmore, Monasterboice, and elsewhere. Practically, 

 the buildings on the Eock of Cashel are the only ones where the work 

 of preservation has actually commenced. There is serious cause of 

 alarm that a misdirected zeal in carrying on the works of pre- 

 servation and repair may be more productive of evil than of good. 

 When such works are " restored," they are generally greatly de- 

 stroyed. Dealing with any ancient work of art, the restorer can 

 never equal the original artist in the spirit or the feeling of his 

 work ; and the softening touch of time, which brings the ruin into 

 harmony with the scene around till it too seems, in its unobtru- 

 sive beauty, a part of nature itself, can never be replaced, though it 

 may too easily be dispelled, by the hand of man. In striving to 

 impress this subject upon you, it is with the hope that you will feel 

 with me that, as a body, we should unite in expressing our opinion 

 that such monuments cannot be satisfactorily dealt with unless all 

 works carried on in connexion with them be under the superintendence 

 of some one or more persons endowed with special archaeological 

 knowledge, sufficient to render them competent for the duty of not 

 only furthering and directing the works but also of resti'aining the 

 workmen who should be employed to put such buildings in repair, 

 or else that the architect should religiously confine himself to the 

 most unobtrusive method of mere preservation — keeping them in 

 their present condition. 



It is desirable that we should, for a few moments, look beyond the 

 limits of this Academy and this country, and consider the labours of 

 others engaged in the same studies abroad, so that our energies mav 



