Avienus wrote about the three hundredth year of the Christian era, and cites the authorities whence he derived his information to the following purpose, viz.:-- “Himilco, the Phœnician, has recorded that he has himself traversed the ocean, and with his own eyes and senses verified those facts. From the _remote_ annals of the Phœnicians I copy the same, and present them to you as handed down from antiquity.” Himilco, be it remarked, flourished six hundred years before the name of Christianity was mentioned in the world; and when his acquaintance with this isle, and that of his countrymen in general, is thus irrefutably premised, we shall be the more ready to do justice to that observation made by Tacitus, when, in his _Life of Agricola_, talking of Ireland relatively to England, he affirmed that “her coasts and harbours were better known, through commerce and mercantile negotiation,” than those of the latter country.[131] Why do I introduce this notice here? To show that it was not to the Latins Avienus was indebted for his _insight_ into that term, which we thus pursue. The Romans knew nothing even of the _situation_ of the place that bore it, until their avarice and their rapacity brought their eagles to Britain; and, after effecting the subjugation of that heroic island, it is no small incentive to our vanity to see their historian constrained to confess that the exhibition of a similar project against the liberties of Ireland was more with a view to overawe, than from any hopes of succeeding;[132] while the ignorance which he evinces in another clause of that very sentence, whence the above extract has been quoted,--placing Ireland _midway_ between Spain and England,--is proof incontrovertible of the position which has been assumed. But it is to me immaterial whether Avienus was aware or otherwise that “Hibernia” and “Sacred Island” were convertible and synonymous. It is not by his authority that I mean to establish the fact; for even admitting his cognisance of the identity of these two terms, he must yet of _necessity_ be unacquainted with the _root_ whence they _both_ had sprung; and, accordingly, I have only put him here in the foreground--as has been the plan all through--“to break the ice,” as it were, for the exordium of the promised _dénouement_. _Iran_, then, and _Irin_, or, as more correctly spelled, _Eirean_ and _Eirin_, with an _e_ prefixed to each of the other vowels, as well initial as intermediate, is the characteristic denomination which all our ancient _manuscripts_ affix to this country. There is no exception to this admitted rule. From the romance to the annal, the observation holds good; it is an _inalienable_ landmark, and of _inviolable_ unanimity.