Robert Atkinson. 



the way for the work in its ultimate form. He planned a series 

 of publications, which, however, he did not live to complete. In 

 choosing the texts which he edited, lie was guided not by their 

 literary interest, but mainly by their value for the purpose of 

 establishing the history and signification of words. ""Words, words, 

 words, that is what we want," he said in his inaugural lecture as 

 Todd Professor. Accordingly he selected his texts on two principles. 

 First, they must be such that the meanings of the words could be 

 definitely ascertained. He held with Aristotle that we must begin 

 from what we know, and proceed from the known to the iinknown. 

 Secondly, he intended to study examples representative of different 

 periods of the language, and of different departments of literature. 

 The two works which he edited in the Todd Lecture Series, the 

 Homilies and Passions from the Leahhar Breac (1887), and Keating's 

 Three Shafts of Death (1890), were intended to represent two periods 

 of that ecclesiastical literature which occupies so important a place in 

 Irish Mss. of all ages. The Glossary to the Laws (1901), on which he 

 spent twelve years of toil, was an elaborate and exhaustive study 

 of the legal vocabulary. There is reason to think that he had 

 intended to treat in the same way the special vocabularies of History 

 and Medicine ; and he would doubtless have pursued his scheme had 

 health and the span of life permitted. 



What he actually achieved is work of the highest value in its kind. 

 In the Glossary to the Passions and Homilies, every word is studied 

 in the utmost detail : not only is each form of every vocable exactly 

 recorded, but even the number of instances where each occurs is 

 registered, so that a single line contains the comparison of a hundred 

 passages. The result is that we obtain a complete view of the usage 

 of the language at a certain period. The edition of the Three Shafts 

 is equally conscientious, though somewhat less laborious, the language 

 of the period studied being in this case much nearer to the modern 

 spoken tongue, and consequently much better understood. In the 

 edition of the Irish Liher Hymnorum (1897) he applied the same 

 method in narrower compass. 



Eut the heaviest toil of Atkinson's life was bestowed on the 

 Ancient Laivs of Ireland. This work, which had long been in 

 a condition of suspense, was handed over to him for completion 

 when four volumes had already been issued. The Brehon Laws 



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