It appeareth that, under the antient Government of _Ireland_, the Education of the landed Gentry, when Luxury, with its wasteful Catalogue of Vices, had not rendered Property so mutable and wavering as in modern Ages, was provided for; whether by the immediate Care of Parents, or essential Attention of Guardians, by the Laws of the Land; in order that Gentlemen should, to the Antiquity of Birth and Possession, add the important Dignity of Learning, and social Refinement of Arts: Since a Man at the Head of an original Estate, who should want the necessary Cultivation of Letters, was considered only as a Peasant in Disguise, and not more respected than a Hewer of Wood, or Drawer of Water. In these Writings of St. _Fiechry_, the legislative Wisdom of _Olam-Fodla_; the philosophically-religious Capacity of _Cormac-O Quin_, who, from the pure Light of Nature, in a great Measure defeated the absurd _Polytheism_ of the _Druids_; the consummate Integrity and Impartiality of _Federach_ the Just, and _Moran_ his Chief Justice; the Magnanimity of _Con-Ked-Cathagh_; the Conquests of _Kineth Mac Alpin_; the long, glorious, and peaceful Reign of _Conary_ the Great, _coæval_ with the Birth of our Blessed Lord and Saviour _Jesus Christ_, (undoubtedly the happiest, brightest, and most blissful Period the World ever saw;) are all displayed in a copious masterly Style, yet with strict chronological Exactness. This learned St. _Fiechry_ was Founder of the University in _Paris_, in the Beginning of the 8th Century. The better to enable him to carry on that noble Work, he obtained of _Charles_ the Great a Tax on all Wheel-Carriages, within the Barriers of that City: Whence, a Hackney-Coach is at this Day technically term’d _Fiacre_. _Charles_ the Great, in order to repair the cruel and truly lamentable literary Dilapidations of the ferocious North-men, invited Numbers of the learned and pious _Irish_ to the Continent, where he established and entertained them with Dignity, Tenderness, and Respect. In a curious Manuscript of _Nicholaus Gurtlerus_, (now in the _French_ King’s _Parisian_ Library) Author of the _Origines Mundi_, where he alludes to these Times, you find the following favourable, but true Account of _Ireland_.—_Temporibus illis, barbaris Normannorum Cohortibus undequaque irrumpentibus, Religio, Fides, Philosophia, Virtus, Hospitalitas, Fortitudo, Castitas, necnon et Amœniores omnium generum Artes, Hibernia solummodò natali, veluti Solo, viguerunt_; little Wonder that _Ireland_ should have been esteemed the _Ierne_, or sacred Isle of the _Greeks_, the _Insula Sanctorum_, or Island of Saints of the _Romans_.—Would to Heaven our Countrymen had, upon all considerable Occasions, recollected those deserved Encomiums, thereby to approve them worthy their applauded Origin, and native Soil!