The abbot was from youth a great lover of books and an unwearied scribe. His standard biographer, Adamnan, says that he never could spend the space even of one hour without study, or prayer, or writing, or some other holy occupation, watching or fasting. This love of books continued in his case to the very end. Not till the day of his demise was the pen finally laid aside. On that day, after blessing the Monastery, he descended from the hill and sat in his hut transcribing the Psalter. But the vitality of that once deft hand and brain was now well-nigh spent, and answered feebly, like the diminishing flow of water from a spout. “Here,” cried the saint, at length, conscious of the impending change, “at the end of the page I must stop, and what follows let Baithene write.” It was his love of literature that got him into trouble with St. Finnian, and in the “Calendar of Aengus” the story goes that he once visited a man, Longarad, noted for his collection of books. In anticipation of the visit, and mindful perhaps of Cooldrevna, the _sai_ or saoidh (wise man) hid his treasures, whereupon Columba left “a word,” that is, a curse, on the books, so that when in after ages they had become unintelligible from various causes, this was deemed the full and sufficient reason. “May your books be of no use after you, since you have exercised inhospitality in withholding them.” He composed a book of hymns for the office of every day in the week, and in the “Old Irish Life” he is credited with having written “three hundred gifted, lasting, illuminated noble books.” It is highly probable that those thus referred to were simply transcribed by him, for we have no evidence that he wrote any prose literature. The three books still existing in Ireland which tradition and some high authorities regard as the work of his own hand are simply transcripts. They are certainly very ancient, even if they do not quite reach up to his day. Two of them are in Trinity College, Dublin, and the third in the Royal Irish Academy. The former, known as the Book of Durrow and the Book of Kells,[15] are copies of the Gospels in Latin, the one finished, the other not, but the Book of Kells, which is the unfinished one, contains on its blank pages copies of charters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, connected with the endowment of the Institution. The other book referred to as in the Royal Irish Academy is the famous “Cathrach,” believed to be the identical copy of the Psalter that Columba made when he was a student. The skill displayed in the penmanship and decoration of these ancient MSS. is astonishing, and they have covers which are brilliant specimens of early Celtic art. The Book of Kells, in particular, is spoken of as “the unapproachable glory of Irish illumination.” In fact, the codex known as the “Four Masters” alleges that “it was the principal relic of the western world on account of its remarkable cover.”