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Article CHAPTER IX. ← Page 6 of 10 →
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Chapter Ix.
little while ago referred , my intreaties were met with the following answer . — ' My child , do not ask me for information upon that head : there they stand venerable and almost as old as the land that bears them . They are not for war , signal , sound , or observation . The old people have told me so , as they have heard from others who were still older than themselves . They belong to some religion of deep and awful mystery , but the date and character of which are long lost in the recesses of time . '—I was , however , too
much his own son not to be impregnated with his tastes ; and , in absence of every other inheritance , it is some consolation to reflect that in spirit , at least , if not in corporeality may be preserved some resemblance . " " My own opinion , Thurlogh , ever was , that those hankerings after antiquity which so characterises the natives of this isolated region , must have had some solid principles for their groundwork ; and I exult in the hope that the day has already dawned when in the fulness of its light , the proofs of this idea will he triumphantlestablishedand literature at large benefited
y , , so far as history is concerned , by the regeneration of that of Ireland . To you , Thurlogh , shall I look for the ratification of this hope . " " The havoc , sir , inflicted on our literary records would make this to any scholar a difficult achievement : how much more then , to one , who is a mere novice in books . Yet , while deploring the injury which violence or decay have effected upon the annals and literary monuments of the Irish , I am far from thereby acknowledging that the remnant is so meagre as not fully to substantiate the antiquity of our oriinand demonstrate even to the most
g , incredulous the irrefragable proofs of former fame as a nation . " " True , very true , Thurlogh , but you must remember , that to remedy , in some sort , the disasters of this melancholy defalcation , a distinguished officer and antiquarian of the ' sister isle , ' actuated solely by a reverence for abstract truth , and a desire to rebut the defamations which intolerance had spread abroad , has entered the arena in defence of a people , who had no other claim
upon his pen , than that which identifies the plulosopher at all times , with the cause of innocence aggrieved . " " You mean Vallancey?—I presume . " " I do mean Vallancey : the old general who has triumphed in the vindication of our ancient history , and put to silence for ever the sneers of our traducers . Has he not nobly traced our Phoenician descent , and proved that those edifices , to which you have some time ago alluded , had beeu erected by that people as temples for the preservation of their sacred fire ?
" No one , sir , can appreciate the services of the general more cordially than I do ; nor more gratefully record the benefits which we have derived from his literary trophies . But while thus lavish of my gratitude to him as a stranger , I am bound withal to observe that his view of our origin was altogether wrong ! that his tracing it to the Phoenicians was a delusion tenfold ! that those temples whicli he would associate with the preservation of the fiery element , had no sort of connexion with that worship at all ! that his inferences from etymology are not only forced but inaccurate—in a word , that he possessed not the clue , and that he knew not the access to one single approach of the innumerable cells of the complicated labyrinth of our ancient history !"
" Do you forget his proving the Carthaginians' speech in Plautus to have been pure Irish ?" " 1 remember his attempting it , and failing in the attempt . The truth is , that our country had no one particle of identification with the PiKEiiieiaiis whatsoever . Long ere they were ever spoken of as a nation , we blazed as a meteor . Nor , indeed , did they ever attain to any thing like nationality , being merely carriers or transporters on the highways of the sea ; for proficiency in which profession they exerted every sinew , and neglected , in
consequence , every one department of letters . Now the Irish have , on the contrary , ever cultivated literature ivith an energy and zeal characteristically their own . And it could scarcely be imagined , that were they a colony of VOL . ii . n
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chapter Ix.
little while ago referred , my intreaties were met with the following answer . — ' My child , do not ask me for information upon that head : there they stand venerable and almost as old as the land that bears them . They are not for war , signal , sound , or observation . The old people have told me so , as they have heard from others who were still older than themselves . They belong to some religion of deep and awful mystery , but the date and character of which are long lost in the recesses of time . '—I was , however , too
much his own son not to be impregnated with his tastes ; and , in absence of every other inheritance , it is some consolation to reflect that in spirit , at least , if not in corporeality may be preserved some resemblance . " " My own opinion , Thurlogh , ever was , that those hankerings after antiquity which so characterises the natives of this isolated region , must have had some solid principles for their groundwork ; and I exult in the hope that the day has already dawned when in the fulness of its light , the proofs of this idea will he triumphantlestablishedand literature at large benefited
y , , so far as history is concerned , by the regeneration of that of Ireland . To you , Thurlogh , shall I look for the ratification of this hope . " " The havoc , sir , inflicted on our literary records would make this to any scholar a difficult achievement : how much more then , to one , who is a mere novice in books . Yet , while deploring the injury which violence or decay have effected upon the annals and literary monuments of the Irish , I am far from thereby acknowledging that the remnant is so meagre as not fully to substantiate the antiquity of our oriinand demonstrate even to the most
g , incredulous the irrefragable proofs of former fame as a nation . " " True , very true , Thurlogh , but you must remember , that to remedy , in some sort , the disasters of this melancholy defalcation , a distinguished officer and antiquarian of the ' sister isle , ' actuated solely by a reverence for abstract truth , and a desire to rebut the defamations which intolerance had spread abroad , has entered the arena in defence of a people , who had no other claim
upon his pen , than that which identifies the plulosopher at all times , with the cause of innocence aggrieved . " " You mean Vallancey?—I presume . " " I do mean Vallancey : the old general who has triumphed in the vindication of our ancient history , and put to silence for ever the sneers of our traducers . Has he not nobly traced our Phoenician descent , and proved that those edifices , to which you have some time ago alluded , had beeu erected by that people as temples for the preservation of their sacred fire ?
" No one , sir , can appreciate the services of the general more cordially than I do ; nor more gratefully record the benefits which we have derived from his literary trophies . But while thus lavish of my gratitude to him as a stranger , I am bound withal to observe that his view of our origin was altogether wrong ! that his tracing it to the Phoenicians was a delusion tenfold ! that those temples whicli he would associate with the preservation of the fiery element , had no sort of connexion with that worship at all ! that his inferences from etymology are not only forced but inaccurate—in a word , that he possessed not the clue , and that he knew not the access to one single approach of the innumerable cells of the complicated labyrinth of our ancient history !"
" Do you forget his proving the Carthaginians' speech in Plautus to have been pure Irish ?" " 1 remember his attempting it , and failing in the attempt . The truth is , that our country had no one particle of identification with the PiKEiiieiaiis whatsoever . Long ere they were ever spoken of as a nation , we blazed as a meteor . Nor , indeed , did they ever attain to any thing like nationality , being merely carriers or transporters on the highways of the sea ; for proficiency in which profession they exerted every sinew , and neglected , in
consequence , every one department of letters . Now the Irish have , on the contrary , ever cultivated literature ivith an energy and zeal characteristically their own . And it could scarcely be imagined , that were they a colony of VOL . ii . n