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FOREWORD.

PROFESSOR JOHN TYNDALL, an Irishman, was the first to show the world "the scientific use of the imagination." He shared with Professor Huxley the honor of being the most luminous exponent of abstruse scientific propositions that the world has ever seen. Powerful and vivid imagination, both mystic and scientific, is the characteristic and dominant element in Irish literature.

Even literary experts are hardly aware how many of the bright particular stars which stud the firmament of English literature are Irishmen. Ireland has produced men of mark and distinction in all departments of public life: some of the greatest administrators, some of the greatest soldiers, and, last but not least, some of the greatest authors, poets, dramatists, and orators that have used the English language as a medium. Furthermore, Ireland is at last figuring before the world as "a nation once again," as the poet Davis so fervently sang. Her nationality and her national spirit have been recognized during the last twenty years as they never were since the days when Ireland was the "island of saints and scholars," the land of intellectual light and leading in Europe; when it was, to quote Dr. Johnson," the School of the West, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature.” Lady Gregory, in a letter addressed to the writer, while this work was going through the press, speaking of the good progress that is being made in Ireland toward the building up of the character of the country, says: "Its dignity has suffered from persistent caricature, and too often by the hands of its own children. I am not a politician, but I often say, if we are not working for Home Rule, we are preparing for it. Ireland is looked upon with far more respect by thinkers than it was ten years ago, and I feel sure that your Anthology will do good work in this direction."

The world has never yet fully recognized the fact that Ireland has produced a literature of her own, fitted to take rank with that of any other nation, and this literature is far too important a contribution to the sum of human knowledge and delight to be obscured under a for

eign name. Because it has been so obscured is one reason why Ireland has not been looked upon by thinkers with the respect which she deserves; but this condition of things will, it is hoped, be forever removed by the publication of this work.

Before Irishmen were forced to express themselves in English they had a literature of which the wealth and the wonder have been revealed in these later years by Dr. Whitley Stokes, Standish Hayes O'Grady, Dr. Kuno Meyer, Eugene O'Curry, John O'Donovan, Miss Eleanor Hull, Lady Gregory, Dr. Douglas Hyde, M. de Jubainville, and Professors Zummer and Wundlich, and others too numerous to mention. The rich field of ancient Celtic literature has been explored by them, and many of its treasures in translation will be found scattered through Volumes I. to IX. of this library. But more than this. In Ireland's progress toward becoming "a nation once again," her people have sought to make their native language a vehicle of literary expression once more-with what success our tenth volume shows.

After all, however, the great bulk of Irish literature consists of the contributions of Irishmen and Irishwomen to English literature. For the first time they are given their due in this library, and Irish people themselves will be astonished to find how the Irishmen and Irish women who have written in the English language, and have never been credited with their work as Irish, but have ever been classified under an alien name, have preserved an individuality, a unity, a distinctive characteristic, a national spirit, and a racial flavor, which entitle their work to a place apart.

The continuity of the Irish genius in its literature for nearly two thousand years is very clearly shown in these volumes. The rich, full, and elaborate vocabulary of the Irishmen who have written and spoken in English for the last two centuries or so had its taproots in the Gaelic of a far-off past. This will at once be seen by reading the adjective-laden Description of the Sea,' taken from The Battle of Magh Leana,' translated from the ancient Gaelic by Eugene O'Curry-almost Homeric in its form and Titanic in its forceful phrasing, and comparing it with the best of Irish-English prose and verse, or even with the

literary efforts of any modern Irishmen. The same power of glowing description, the same profusion of cumulative adjectival phrase, the same simple yet bold and powerful imagery, the same rhythmic sense, will be found to underlie them all.

The nationality of Ireland expressed in her literature is the noblest monument she has reared, and to exhibit this monument to the world in all its beauty is one of the objects of this work. The Irish is the most readable literature in the world; it is entertaining, amusing, bright, sunny, poetical, tasteful, and it is written with an ease and a fluency which have been the salt that has seasoned the whole body of English literature.

This library contains in ten volumes representative selections from the works of Irish writers, ancient and modern, in prose and in verse. It gives examples of all that is best, brightest, most attractive, amusing, readable, and interesting in their work; and, while its contents have received the approval of the highest and most fastidious literary critics, it is, first and foremost, a library of entertaining and instructive reading.

Few people can afford to have the works of the three hundred and fifty Irish authors represented in this collection. Few, indeed, could select the one hundred greatest Irish books from a catalogue. The Editors have

selected from the works of nearly three hundred and fifty authors, and this library is a guide, philosopher, and friend to conduct the reader through the wide fields of Irish literary lore.

From the vast storehouses of Irish literature they have extracted the choicest of its treasures, and have brought them within the reach of all-the mythology, legends, fables, folk lore, poetry, essays, oratory, history, annals, science, memoirs, anecdotes, fiction, travel, drama, wit and humor, and pathos of the Irish race are all represented. This library, therefore, focuses the whole intellectuality of the Irish people. It not only presents a view of the literary history of Ireland, but it gives also a series of historic pictures of the social development of the people, for literature is the mirror in which the life and movements of historic periods are reflected.

From the story of 'The Hospitality of Cuanna's House,'

translated by Connellan, in which we have a picture of social manners and customs nearly two thousand years ago, down to the stories of the life of the present day, Irish literature is full of pictures, some bright and some dark, of the way in which the people of Ireland have lived and loved and fought and prayed for twenty centuries.

This library will be found an inexhaustible source of inspiration to old and young alike, an influence in forming taste, in molding character, and in perpetuating all the best qualities associated with the name of Irishmen; furthermore, it will be a valued acquisition in every Englishspeaking home, for the qualities of the Irish are those which have made the chief glories of English literature. It gives every household a share in the treasures with which the genius of the Irish race has enriched mankind.

While this work brings together a representative selection of all that is best in Irish literature (and by "Irish literature" we mean the literature which is written by Irish men and women), it does not appeal to the Irish alone. Among the greatest novelists, dramatists, orators, poets, and scientists of the world, Irishmen are to be found, always vivacious, always lively, always bright, a id always attractive; therefore this library presents such a body of representative reading as has never before been put together. It is distinctly national in flavor, quality, and character; it is entertaining at every point; it appeal:; to humanity on every side; there are no acres of dryasdust in IRISH LITERATURE.' Open any one of these volumes where you will, at any page, and there will be found something which, whether it amuses or instructs, will be sure to possess in the most eminent degree the great qualities of vivid imagination and readability.

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Of the authors whose names appear in 'IRISH LITERATURE' one hundred and twenty are living to-day, or are of the last twenty-five years. This indicates how fully the new movement is represented. Here will be found the work of Jane Barlow, Stopford Brooke, Shan Bullock, Egerton Castle, John Eglinton, A. P. Graves, Lady Gregory, Stephen Gwynn, Eleanor Hull, Dr. Douglas Hyde, Coulson Kernahan, Seumas MacManus, George Moore, F. F. Moore, R. B. O'Brien, T. P. O'Connor, Standish O'Grady, T. W. Rolleston, G. W. Russell ("A. E."),

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