.. And as there is very little idealism there is very
little imagination ... The Irish tales as a rule are devoid of it
fundamentally."
Dr Atkinson is an Englishman, but unfortunately not only
fellow-professors in Trinity but undergraduates there have been
influenced by his opinion, that Irish literature is a thing to be
despised. I do not quote his words to draw attention to a battle that is
still being fought, but to explain my own object in working, as I have
worked ever since that evidence was given, to make a part of Irish
literature accessible to many, especially among my young countrymen, who
have not opportunity to read the translations of the chief scholars,
scattered here and there in learned periodicals, or patience and time to
disentangle overlapping and contradictory versions, that they may judge
for themselves as to its "lowness" and "want of imagination," and the
other well-known charges brought against it before the same Commission.
I believe that those who have once learned to care for the story of
Cuchulain of Muirthemne, and of Finn and Lugh and Etain, and to
recognise the enduring belief in an invisible world and an immortal life
behind the visible and the mortal, will not be content with my
redaction, but will go, first to the fuller versions of the best
scholars, and then to the manuscripts themselves. I believe the forty
students of old Irish lately called together by Professor Kuno Meyer
will not rest satisfied until they have explored the scores and scores
of uncatalogued and untranslated manuscripts in Trinity College Library,
and that the enthusiasm which the Gaelic League has given birth to will
lead to much fine scholarship.
Pages:
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557