Sir Samuel Ferguson, Poet and Orator. 5 



than during his lifetime, just as occurred in the case of Whistler 

 in the sister domain of art, and Schubert in music. Friends of 

 his (the speaker's) who knew Sir Samuel Ferguson in DubUn, 

 spoke in the warmest terms of his delightful personality, of his 

 wonderful conversational qualities, and of his most generous 

 disposition. All who had come in contact with him or who had 

 studied his writings would agree on one point, and that was that 

 Sir Samuel Ferguson was, in the best and truest sense of the 

 word, a patriot, who did his utmost to advance the prestige of 

 Ireland in every line of intellectual effort, and no man did more 

 than he to awaken an interest in the history, learning, and 

 antiquities of his native country. They were particularly fortunate 

 that evening in having with them a gentleman to lecture on Sir 

 Samuel Ferguson who was in such thorough sympathy with his 

 subject, for Mr. Graves was both by heredity as well as by 

 cultivation one of the most distinguished Irish literary men of the 

 present day — a poet and a musician who, living during early life 

 in the countrysides of the South of Ireland, had become 

 thoroughly acquainted with the people, and had received an ever- 

 living impulse from their language and from the music of the old 

 airs they sung, just as Moira O'Neill had found her inspiration 

 in the environment of the lovely Glens of Antrim. 



Mr. Alfred Perceval Graves, who was very heartily 

 received, said Sir Samuel Ferguson was the Irish poet of the last 

 century who most powerfully influenced the literary history of his 

 country. It was the influence of his writings that so decisively 

 begun the great work of restoring to Ireland the spiritual 

 treasure she sacrificed in losing the Gaelic tongue. He was, 

 however, no mere antiquarian ; he was also a scholar and patriot 

 in the highest sense of the words, and he had friends in all 

 parties, for he was in no sense a political partisan. He (the 

 lecturer) should say from what he had read of Ferguson's poetry, 

 and what he knew of the man, that he differed from those who 

 regarded the realm of poetry as another world, detachable from 

 this — a life mystical. He was absolutely human and practicable, 



