185 



gical work, refers to such a compilation, when, speaking of the various 

 ancient authors, he says: — " Why should I be enumerating them, for 

 they cannot be counted without writing a large book of their names, . . . 

 And, not to give but the Titles alone of the Tracts which they wrote, 

 as we have done before now." (See Curry's " Lectures," p. 218.) But this 

 preface was written in the year 1650, whereas the original of the Tract 

 before us was compiled or transcribed by the compiler from an earlier 

 copy, in the year 1656, old style. 



This Tract is, I regret to say, defective; it is Mr. Hennessy's opi- 

 nion that it was never finished; and, as exhibiting his reasons for coming 

 to this conclusion in opposition to Mc Firbis's statement just referred 

 to, I may quote a letter received from him, accompanying this do- 

 nation : — 



" Dear Sir — During a recent examination of the Irish MS. col- 

 lection preserved in the Bodleian Library, I had the good fortune to 

 discover two original Tracts in the handwriting of Duald Mac Firbis, 

 which somehow escaped the keen research of the late Dr. O'Donovan. 



" Having accomplished the laborious task which I had proposed to 

 myself of making a transcript of the profusely gloss' d copy of the Fes- 

 tiology of iEngus, preserved in a MS. of the twelfth century in the Laud 

 Collection, I made as close an examination as my limited time per- 

 mitted of the very rare and inestimable MSS. preserved in both the 

 Laud and Rawlinson Collections. On looking over the small paper vo- 

 lume ' No. 480, Eawlinson,' I recognised the, to me, well known hand- 

 writing of Mac Firbis. The MS. consists principally of Ecclesiastical 

 Tracts, one of which, comprising 11 folios, is thus entitled : — 



" { Here beginneth the Booke of St. Patritius the Bishoppe, entreat- 

 ing of the Joyes of Heaven and the Paines of Hell, and of the good- 

 ness and evilnesse of this world.' 



"And at the end — * Here Endeth the Booke of St. Patricke the 

 Bishoppe, translated out of Lattin into English by E. S., 1585.' 



" And the translator adds—' Yide ye Booke calld ' Pricke of the ye 

 conscience upon the same subject more at large.' 



" The portion in Mac Pirbis's handwriting consists of only fourteen 

 folios, but closely written, and the handwriting being very minute, and 

 so beautiful as to excite surprise, when it is remembered that the writer 

 was nearly seventy years of age at the time. 



" The first eight folios contain a part of his { Lost Treatise on Lrish 

 Authors,' and the remaining six contain a curious ' Tract on Ancient 

 Lrish Bishops and Bishopricks,' not accounted as such in Mac Pirbis's 

 time. 



" At the end of every page of the first of these, the Treatise on 

 Authors, except the last, the letter or word with which the succeeding 

 page commences is uniformly added ; and the omission of this mark 

 of continuation from the last page is, I am inclined to think, a proof 

 that the author never completed the task which he had set before 



