Nash, is a clearance like one of Mr. Nash's. But the difficult feat
in this matter is the feat of construction; to determine when one has
cleared away all that is to be cleared away, what is the significance
of that which is left; and here, I confess, I think Mr. Nash and his
fellow-sceptics, who say that next to nothing is left, and that the
significance of whatever is left is next to nothing, dissatisfy the
genuine critic even more than Edward Davies and his brother
enthusiasts, who have a sense that something primitive, august, and
interesting is there, though they fail to extract it, dissatisfy him.
There is a very edifying story told by O'Curry of the effect produced
on Moore, the poet, who had undertaken to write the history of
Ireland (a task for which he was quite unfit), by the contemplation
of an old Irish manuscript. Moore had, without knowing anything
about them, spoken slightingly of the value to the historian of
Ireland of the materials afforded by such manuscripts; but, says
O'Curry:-
'In the year 1839, during one of his last visits to the land of his
birth, he, in company with his old and attached friend Dr. Petrie,
favoured me with an unexpected visit at the Royal Irish Academy. I
was at that period employed on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, and at
the time of his visit happened to have before me on my desk the Books
of Ballymote and Lecain, The Speckled Book, The Annals of the Four
Masters, and many other ancient books, for historical research and
reference.
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