prove any thing in point; for the Editor lays it down that the letter of the law is of Pagan inftitution.

These things premised, and it being kept in mind that Cormac and Carbre flourished in the third century, and it being well known that Chriftianity was not introduced into Ireland till the fifth, it follows that both Carbre and his jurifconfult Aicill must have been heathens. Yet now reader, "if that thou can't read," read what is put into either the letter or the explication (no matter which) of the code of laws, compofed and promulged by these Heathens, AICILL and Carbre, the jurifconfult and legiflator, at p. 11. "The next page begins a "kind of exordium to the work thus, aflach on athair for Ebba & toltnugad do Ebha fria, i. e. The ferpent presented the forbidden fruit to Eve, and Eve "confented to receive it. Imarbas, is the prohibi"tion of a legiflator. Com fugud do Adam fria "flatarta um coimde, i. e. Eve delivered it to "Adam in difobedience to the Trinity."

66

As this proof is fo clear that it would be darkened by any commentary, I fhall only exprefs my wifhes that the Editor, instead of " begging that his reader << may remark the difference between the letter "of the law and the explication of faid law," had himself pointed out to us faid difference. For, notwithstanding the exhibition of a fragment of a code of laws is formally announced (at page 6), and notwithstanding it is faid (at page 25), that " the truth "of the existence of letters in Ireland before Chriftia

nity is probably demonftrated," I cannot with all my diligence discover, in the intervening pages, either letter or explication, text or margin, of any law whatsoever. The candid Editor himself tells us (page 8), that "the first folio contains an hiftorical prelude to thelaw." And fure the Gloffary, which he tells us

(at

(at page 20) ends the fragment, does not deferve that name; which will be more eafily believed by any one who will only take the trouble of reading the TITLE PAGE for the very title of this article is Tranflation of a fragment of the Brehon LAWS; or rather a GLOSSARY of the Brehon TERMS.

As this Gloffary is faid in a note (page 12) to adopt the allegorical method of reafoning ufed by the Platonifts, Stoics and primitive Fathers of the church, I fhall, in pure mercy to my reader, make no extract from it; but I must beg his patience if I make a fhort one from the first folio, not fo much that he may fee the elegant ftuff that it is compofed of, as for the purpose to which it shall be applied, by and by.

"Ceallach, fon of Cormac, ravished a Lagenian "lady of quality, daughter to Solar fon of Artcorb, at her father's houfe at Rath Aedha in Leinster ; "sometime after Aongus Gaibuaibnech, paffing

through Connaught, went into the houfe of a woman of the free ftate of Luigne and forcibly "drank milk there, ro cait bainde in ar eigin; up"on which fhe told him he had better revenge "himself on Ceallach for violating his brother So"lar's honour, than infringe on the liberty of that "ftate; which reproach made fo deep an impreffi

on on the mind of Aongus, that he immediately "went home, put on his armour, and after the fet"ting of the fun met Cormac and his fon Ceal"lach, when at one blow he put Ceallach to death "and with his armed elbow ftruck Cormac blind; "but the famous Aicill performed a cure for his 66 eye."

Thus may you fee, candid reader, that this famous Aicill was, according to the tranflation of this invaluable MS. both a jurifconfult and a phyfician. Yet

Yet be not furprized (and furely you cannot be easily furprized after what you have been reading) when you are told, that Aicill is not the name of a person but of a place; and is no other than KELLS in the county of Meath. And therefore the tranflator was not far from the fense when he faid, in the above long citation, that AICILL lived in the envi rons of Tara.

But, if you would rather fee this matter cleared up by himself than by me, turn to Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis, Vol. II. page 19. There you may read in a Note (which feems to have been written after the foregoing part of No. 5 was printed off) as follows: "The Editor is happy to inform "his correfpondent C. that in the MSS. of Trinity "College Dublin, clafs E. tab. 3. N. 5. he has found "the remaining part of the blai*; the book begins "thus, Loc don liubar fo Aicill iraice Teamur, 7 aimfir "Coirpri Liffeachair mac Cormac 7 pearfa do Cormac. "i. e. The place where this book was written was "AICILI. near Tara, in the time of Carbre Liffea"chair mac Cormac and the person Cormac."

Then follows the hiftory of Ceallach's adventure, nearly as in the above extract, but with this material difference refpecting the cure of Cormac's eye; for instead of, "The famous AICILL performed a "cure for his eye," it is faid, Cormac was fent to AICILL to be cured. Had the tranflater ftudied the history (with even as much diligence as he has applied to the language) of Ireland, he could not have made Aicilla JURISCONSULT in his verfion of the first MS. which he difcovers to be the name of a PLACE in the laft. For does not every hiftory of Ireland, from the Pfalter of Cafhel down to Keating and O'Flaherty, tell you that Cormac, who is repre

E

fented

See above where it was obferved: "Here ends the Fragment, fo that all the rest of the BLAI are wanting, and all that part compofed by Ceanfaela."

fented as the greatest monarch that ever fat upon the throne, whose wisdom regulated the Fes, and whole -historiographers compofed the PSALTER of TARA, whofe fublime capacity dictated the Advice to kings, whose philofophical genius rendered him a pure Theift, and whofe religious zeal almost extirpated superstition and idolatry out of the land-this Cormac long-beard, I fay, whom we have fo lately heard celebrated as another Juftinian, having loft his eye, in the manner we have feen, and knowing it to be ominous for a mutilated prince to hold the reins of government, voluntarily defcended from that throne, which he filled with fuch luftre (but by the bye his fon did not fucceed him *), to the enjoyment of learned ease in a small thatched house at Aicill†, (i. e. Ceannanus or Kells) in the environs of Tara.

But as perfons and places are frequently called by the fame name, it will be adding another treasure, to the many wherewith he has already enriched the republic of letters, if the Editor will produce a fingle document, whether on parchment or paper, in manufcript or print, in quarto or folio, in duodecimo or octavo, where AICILL is mentioned

as

*Rex ita oculo Temoriæ privatus, regni fafces Carbreo filio (licet alius fucceffor unum annum se ingefferat) in manus tradidit.Abdicato fceptro, prope Temoriam apud AcoILL, theoreticæ vitæ animum incubuit; ubi, abjectis idolis, Deum qui fecit omnia, traditur adoraffe. Ogygia, p. 340.

According to Keating, (who was a Chriftian prieft,) those Pagan priefts, the Druids, out of fpite for his former oppofition to their order, brought this enlightened Theift, to an untimely end, by their forcery and magic. For one night, as he was eating a falmon, they enchanted a bone of it, which stuck in his throat and choaked him; whilst other accounts assert, that the Druid MAOLGEON did, by virtue of his fpells and charms, fend a number of infernal fiends, who fet upon the king and strangled him, as he fat at fupper on this fish, P. 282.

as a lawyer or jurifconfult; that octavo always excepted which contains No. 5, Collect. de rebus Hibernicis.

This homely retreat of king Cormac, at AICILL or Kells in the county of Meath, being, as we have seen, metamorphofed into a lawyer, or jurifconfult, another Trebonianus, puts me in mind of St. Alban's CLOAK, which the Scotch writers made a BISHOP of. The story is told by Lloyd, the learned prelate of St. Afaph. St. Alban had, it feems, a warm cloak which he always wore when he went abroad, and therefore, in the Legend of the faint, it is faid to have been his conftant companion. The legendary appellative for cloak was Amphibalus, which Geoffry of Monmouth, a curious and fagacious felector of old fragments, miftook for a proper name, and for the person who was the conftant companion of St. Alban. This was enough for Hector Boice *, who then wanted to forge a Caledonian fyftem of Antiquities (as fo many of his countrymen have fince done); he accordingly got this old cloak, this AMPHIBALUS, ordained and confecrated, and so fent him from Scotland as the first bishop of the Ile of Man.

Upon the whole, nothing has yet appeared fufficient to invalidate that pofition we above laid down, viz. That the Pagan Irifh were not a jot more civilized than their neighbours. Nor do we find that the people at large had emerged from their primeval ignorance and rudenefs, at the very time their country was dignified with the title of infula fanctorum & doctorum. Nay, obfervable it is, that those worthies, whose eminent abilities obtained for their country this distinguished character, displayed E 2

their

*Boice latinized into Boetius.