50 



Proceediuf/fi of fho Royal Irixh Arademt/. 



judicious application of admitted principles. And the discovery and 

 formulation of such principles ^vould be pre-eminently work for the 

 Academy to undertake. 



The Academy gives complete independence to its members for 

 the expression of their differing opinions on matters that admit of 

 difference of opinion ; but it ought not to be forgotten that independence 

 should involve independence of lias as well as of autJiority, and that 

 any hypotbesis that can be found to explain tbe inner motives that 

 led to the performance of admitted actions, or the critical principles 

 that guided the composition of extant works of art, has a fair claim to 

 be heard before being rejected or denonnced, and that such rejection 

 or denunciation must he based on grounds of reason and not of 

 authority. 



In studies of history, Irish topics will naturally claim attention 

 from members of this Academy. Psychological analysis has sbown 

 the solidarity of Literature and circumstance. The best work of 

 a writer is the portion which is spontaneous and inevitable in his 

 writing ; and as it discloses the writer himself in his real essence, so 

 it also reveals the character and temperament, the mood and aims of 

 his time. The study of any work of literature cannot fail to be a 

 revelation of much that is characteristic of the period. Much 

 knowledge can be gained from this study of the interactions of 

 literature and life. Patrick, Columbanus, Adamnan, Swift, and 

 Burke, these names are pregnant with interest and emotion ; their 

 epochs, each with its ideals and its action, seem to live again in the 

 study of their personality. 



But it is the early period that stands in need of special illumina- 

 tion. At present only dim ghosts flit across the stage of the mythic 

 period. Cuchullin, Pinn, Ossian, are but the phantoms of the poet' 

 dreams. 



Even of a later epoch, of which historic records are extant, there 

 is as yet but little clear historic vision. It has been too often 

 handled by writers in a prose-poetic style, that permitted itself the 

 licenses supposed to be tolerable in the treatment of a legendary 

 record : the setting was altered and the incidents idealized. But this 

 is not tbe right use of legendary record. The legend may not be 

 true, but its details are significant of the life and conduct of the 

 period ; and they can be correlated with the other circumstances of 

 which knowledge is to hand. 



But further, great service can be rendered to historic science })y 

 the limitation of subject to a definite period, and to a particular 



