( xi^ ) 



joined in the work by the UniYersity of Dublin. Great pains have 

 been taken to insure a faithful reproduction of the original text. The 

 Book of Leinster, from the Library of Trinity College, is now in the 

 hands of the transcribers, under the superintendence of our Librarian. 

 This is a manuscript which, though not older than the twelfth 

 century, has been obviously compiled from much more ancient docu- 

 ments. There can be no doubt that, irrespective of other advantages, 

 the publication of the historical matter contained in this manuscript 

 will enable, as has been remarked by a fellow- academician, the future 

 Irish historian to revivify the dry bones furnished by the meagre and 

 often inaccurate chroniclers on whom he has hitherto had to 

 depend. 



You may remember that our Committee of Belles-Lettres is now 

 united to that of Antiquities, and so the investigation of ancient litera- 

 ture forms a fitting part in the Academy work. The researches of 

 Hincks and of Todd I have spoken of, but we have also a communica- 

 tion illustrating the studies of archaeology, and the old literature of 

 England in the 13th century by the learned Secretary of the Council. 

 In this paper Dr. Ingram deals with the Opus Majus of Eoger Bacon, 

 in which Bacon points out in the first part, the four universal causes of 

 human ignorance ; in the second, the relation of philosophy to theo- 

 logy ; and this is followed by four more parts, devoted to the know- 

 ledge of Languages, Mathematics, Optics, and Experimental Science. 



In the Library of Trinity College there exists beautifal MS. of 

 the work in which Dr. Ingram has found a seventh part, the subject of 

 which is Moral Philosophy. He concludes his paper on the Dublin MS, 

 by expressing a hope, in which every literary Archaeologist will ear- 

 nestly join, that he will lay before the Academy an account of its con- 

 tents, extracting everything of interest as to the state of learning and 

 philosophical opinion in the thirteenth century. The Eev. Dr. Eeeves 

 has also enriched our Transactions by his valuable and learned con- 

 tributions, illustrating a curious and important phase in the early 

 Christianity of Ireland ; I allude to his exhaustive papers on the 

 Culdees. In these are exhibited a most remarkable command of the 

 materials of ancient Irish History, combined with, I need not say, the 

 highest critical power of dealing with them. 



In reviewing the labours of the Academy at large for the present 

 half century, independently of those of Hamilton in Science, and Petri© 



