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Show BEFORE THE ENGLISH CAME Dr. sige rson's Speech Before National literary Society at St. Stephen's -Green . Hall, Dublin. Two forces characterize the ancient IrioK nation na-tion a passion for learning and a passion for diffusing dif-fusing knowledge. The first was not simply a desire de-sire to ascertain facts and opinions; it involvd more the spirit of research, which gives life, animation, ani-mation, progress and a future to knowledge,. Without With-out this g-eneratioTM live upon their ancestors mentally; men-tally; repeating their views, not increasing, if not lessening, the stores bequeathed. Without this the heritage of ideas becomes like a noble treasure fleet which has taken ground in a shallow bay from which tie uplifting and ever-moving waters have withdrawn. The passion for diffusing knowledge, like that of learning, elevated in a most unusual and remarkable re-markable manner the ancient Irish race above animosities, ani-mosities, and rendered them everything but insular in character. Xothing is more strange in th world's history than that this, which was by no means a mild, but, a militant, ration a fierce, fighting fight-ing people could prove so attractive as for centuries cen-turies to draw students of strange land3 to its great schools, so adaptable that for centuries its own scholars pervaded all the warring kingdoms around, re-creating knowledge amid the ruins of empire, and making it flourish in tbe savage wilds of barbarism. bar-barism. In the seventh century St. Columbanus, proceeding from Ireland to Gaul and Italy, established estab-lished the great monastic schools of Annegray, I.ux-ueil I.ux-ueil and Bobbio. and his famous disciple. St. Gall, created another one not les illustrious near Lake Constance, which had a great and acknowledged influence over Germany. In the succeeding century Charlemagne formed his celebrated School of tbe Palace, where he and , his paladins sat as pupils. What examples inspired ' him There were none so famed and so flourishing as those Irish schools. Columbanus died at his great and growing school in Lombardy, and it wa in the shadow of its great fame that Charles-, in 780. met the scholar who was to be, for a time, ' ';a.'.sio.t of his o't- n ro,yal scline Thi wa A!ennf stated to be a Saxon, but bred up under Irish influences in-fluences in Northumbria. where Irish was the court language. - He had been a student under the rule of Colcu, at the school of the Clonmacnoise on the Shannon. In the letters of Alcuin. more profuse of personal details than Irish scholars were, we get glimpses of work and life in the eighth century and learn something of the schools of Ireland. All authors speak of the plentiful supply of .books in Ireland, and of the unparalleled generosity of the people, who furnished foreign as well as native na-tive students with books, food and lodging gratuitously. gra-tuitously. In this matter none had taught the ancient Irish, and none have been, in this matter, taught by them not even Charlemagne. Oengus the Cele De. writing of the works of reference from which he had borrowed in the compilation of his calendar, says he "milked into it the vast tome of Ambrose, Hillary's pious senses. Jerome's Auto-grath, Auto-grath, Eusebius' Martyrology and 'The Hosts of the Book of Eruin.' " There, too, the works of the Ancient Fathers, Hebrew writings, the books of Greece. Rome and Africa, the productions of Jerome, Hilary, Ambrose, Am-brose, Augustine, Athanasius. Orosius, Gregory the Great. Leo, Basil. Fulgentius. Cassiodorus, Chrysos-torn. Chrysos-torn. Baeda, Althelm, Yictorinus, Boethius; the ancient an-cient historians. Pompeus. Pliny, Aristotle, Cicero; the poetry of Sedulius, Juvencus. Clemens, Alci-mus, Alci-mus, Prosper. Paulinus. Arator, Fortunatus, Lae-tantius, Lae-tantius, Virgil, Statius, Lucan, and the writings of the masters of grammar. Probus, Phocas, Donatus, Priscian, Serviens, Euticius, Pompeus, Comminiaus. This has been described as perhaps the earliest and most complete catalogue of a college library of the . Middle Ags, and it may be taken for certain that all these works and many more were in the great 't schools of ancient Erin. In a Latin poem Alcuin '; described the teaching of his master, Elbert. The '', sage gave to drink from all founts of knowledge to thirsting minds. Some he taught the rules of j; grammer, for others rolled the waves of rhetoric. ;! These he formed for the struggle in the forum, ;! those for the Aeonian song. . ;! He explained the harmony of the heavens, the mournful eclipses of sun and moon, the five zones ;' of the pole, the seven wandering planets, the laws of the stars, their rising and setting, the violent ;' motions of the sea. earthquakes, the nature of man, of flocks, or birds and wild beases. the diverse com-l com-l bination of numbers and their various forms. He I taught the certain calculation of the Eastern epoch. ; unveiled the mysteries of Holy Writ, and laid open the profundity of ancient law. With this equip-! equip-! ment, and the permission of his archbishop and his ', .king, Offa, Alcuin set sail with a few companions ' to take up his position as master of the Palatine ' school at Aix-la-Chapelle. ' As ihe years passed he, his family and his Cor tege of Paladins became and continued students of the school. By a quaint but curious custom, each ' new student took a new name as he entered, concealing con-cealing his personality under the scholar's gown. ; , Thus in these halls of learning Charlemagne was no longer king and majesty, but David. His sister, ; . the Princess Gisela, became Lucia; his daughters. the Princesses Rothrude and Gisela, were now Co-! Co-! lumbia and Delia; his son-in-law, Angilbert. wa called Homeh the Princess Luitgard. who after- I ' ward became jms queen, was given the name of Ava. 1 ! His sons we?e students of the school, as were all members of flie Cortege Royal. j ' Two you.g Irish scholars, on a voyage of in- j ; quiry from home, made their appearance in Paris. .i j ' Surrounded by crowds of curious persons, the Irish ; ; boys cried out: "If anyone wants wisdom let him ; ; ' come to us and obtain, for we have it on sale.' ; This was a highly original mode of announcing ; their mission, and they became known as the Irish I ! Wisdom Sellers. Their wares proved to be of re-! re-! fined gold, and this Charlemagne discovered when Continued on Page 4.) ? BEFORE THE ENGL!S7CAMh. r (Coiitir.ueil l-'rom Pug" ;.. i he had them brought lief ore him in hi-. p3a,.0 Clement and Alhinuswere their names. There is-extant an ancient Iris.h n! roiiMiiiicr,! tract, of which copies are preserved in t I . - K,,v.,) Irish Academy and in Marsh's library. Tle was dealt with from the standpoint of a-tr"!i,,ni:,,n science by the eminent- iri.-h a.stronomer. Sir.T;,,K-ert Sir.T;,,K-ert Ball, in a lecture before the Iridr' I.iiemn-' I.iiemn-' ciety of London. This Irish Astronomies! Tn',.. I is an earnest and important treatise. illutrat.. diagrams. It is divided into thirty-niiu- ehapN- j which treat of the creation, the sun .mo,,;,, planets and elements: the earth, volea!;,!-. ,,.;. ! tides, rivers, rains, animals and plant.-. The .'i:--and last chapters here mentioned arn part i.-jil:.:-K-I interesting. As regard the tir.-t. the". doer rii..- , ' j the rotundity of the earth might aii!''otl,e.,v!,., I a distinctively Irish 'doctrine. The anei.-u I i-i 1 writers appear to have uniformly adv. ;.. globular shape. It is s-o described in a gi'...-.a viu the Senchus mor. Answering the objection that if the worj.j '. round the inhabitants of cme-haff of its urfa.-i-must walk with their heads, down, the I rivh y.'rii.-r argues: "Whatever is towards the m;'-s of.;!,,, earth is down. and. contrariwise, what i- sui t';;,., ' wards is upward. So that'on what rdde .-u ver ,,. pie may be standing their head.- are v.v and tin j.-feet j.-feet down." In the extra chapter on the tl.-wi!-and ebbing of the sea, the Irish author, giving ti, the old view of the influence of the moon's light, in producing tides go on to assert that the nio.m luis , I a power over moist substances, and. over the v; . ; i of the sea, like the power which adamant exerciser over iron, and the reult of this attraction i .call... the flowing of the sea. .When the attraction e.-a.., ' the sea ebbs. The last chapter states that there are -two .phi,-. on the earth in which tho entire year is one dav and one night. One of these places is dire.-tii-linder the Arctic and the other under the Antar.-ti,-pole. Attention was first drawn to rhiby Iridi clerics, who had resided from February (.. August in Iceland. -They stated that at midsummer tin-sun tin-sun scarcely sets, and there is light enought to enable people, to pursue their uual avocations. Dicuil, the Irish geographer, in S'2 records this, and observes that he had heard if from these Irish clerics thirty years before. That the reputation of Irish scholars for knowledge in astronomical science sci-ence did not for long decline may he inferred from . the fact that in 811 Charlemagne consulted Dungal ; the Recluse as to whether two eclipses had taken place in the previous year, or could oc ur in any year, and received a reply in a Latin letter which is still extant. Xo one is more conscious than T ' that only a fringe of the great veil of the "femplo of Science in ancient Ireland had been lifted. T h, r.- i is abounding room and work for willing mind-. claim to have shown that amidst their m.o-t vanced contemporaries the ancient Irish stood foremost, fore-most, because their passion for learning and their passion for "diffusting knowledge, with the service of alert, free and energetic minds, elevated them above racial restrictions, endowed them with the spirit of research and made them in the realm of intellect the most progressive people in Europe. |
