It is impossible to tread the green sod of _Erin_, without a considerable portion of antiquarian enthusiasm,--at least not to traverse her wilds, without a portion of that spirit, even though we may be tempted to deny that extreme antiquity of record drawn from the earliest periods, and claimed by the _Old Irish_ in the indulgence of their national vanity. But the true enthusiast requires not always absolute historical proof to justify his feelings; and it is well that he does not; for then many of his aërial pictures must fade from existence; and the sober truth certainly is, as the elaborate Leland has expressed himself, that it cannot be denied that no literary monuments, to confirm tradition, have yet been discovered in Ireland earlier than the introduction of Christianity into that country; and that the evidence of any transactions previous to that period, rests entirely on the credit of Christian writers, and their collections from old poets, or their transcripts of records deemed to have been made in times of paganism. It seems indeed, as he adds, unreasonable to expect that any other domestic evidence of Irish antiquity should subsist at this day; but from these the antiquary forms a regular history of a long succession of kings and of romantic events from the earlier ages of the world. Still do these details impart considerable interest to the scenes where they are supposed to have been acted; and from the poetical annals that furnish the catalogue of monarchs, we have a lively picture of manners, most certainly of great antiquity, however low we reduce the scale of chronology, and highly worthy of attention, even though we smile at the tales connected with them, with a most profuse intermixture of giants, necromancers, obscure allegories, and extravagant fables. In those annals, we have an animated picture of a brave people, driven from their native land in search of new settlements, establishing themselves by their valour in a fair and fertile island; the chieftains parcelling out lands to their attendants, and the whole collection of adventurers, from the moment of their peaceful establishment, devising means to give stability to their acquisitions. As a bond of unity to the whole, they elect a monarch; but preserve their own individual sovereignty in their domains, forming a complete feudal system, and filling the land with little courts where politeness and chivalry, attended by poetry and romance, went hand in hand. Such is the sketch which arises from Leland's masterly delineation; who adds, that in this state of things a robust frame of body, a vehemence of passion, an elevated imagination, were the characteristics of the people; whilst noble instances of valour, generous effusions of benevolence, ardent resentments, desperate and vindictive outrages, abound in their annals. From hence too it is that scarcely a romantic dell or simple green knoll exists without its traditionary tale; sometimes stained with