Search -
Strictures on the ecclesiastical and literary history of Ireland
Strictures on the ecclesiastical and literary history of Ireland Author:Thomas Campbell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ignorant of the fize of the ifland, the number or force of the nations which inhabited it, or even of their (kill in war or cuftoms in peace: Nay, they could not... more » give him any exacT: information of their ports, molt capable of receiving his fleet. And when Agricola, near a hundred years after, made the bul inquiries about the date of Ireland, he concluded, that it could be fubdued by a legion and fome auxiliaries. From all which we muft conclude, that the Britifh iflands were, in thofe times, poflefled by a race of men far from civilized ; and that the Irifti were not lei's barbarcus than their neighbours. This opinion has obtained fo generally, from generation to generation, among the writers of every country but our own, that Mr. Hume made no fcruple to aflert, and refufed to retracl the affer- tion, that " the Irifti, from the beginning of time, " had been buried in the moft profound barbarifm " and ignorance ; who, at the coming of the Eng- " lim over them, continued (till in the moft rude " Hate of fociety, and were tliftinguiflied only by " thofe vices to which human nature, not tamed " by education nor reftrained by laws, is for ever u fubjecl. Among them courage and force, though " exercifed in the cotnmifiion of crimes, were more " honoured than any pacific virtues; and the mafl " fimple arts of life, even tillage and agriculture. " were almoft wholly unknown. They had felt the " invafions of the Danes and the other northern " people; but thefe inroads, which had fpread ' barbarifm in the other parts of Europe, tended rather to improve the Irifti; for the only towns, " which were to be found in the ifland, had been " planted along the coaft by the freebooters of " Norway and Demark." As to the fancy of Voltaire, that fome nations feem formed for fubjeclion, and that...« less