In 1809 another thin octavo, called _The Sceptic_, and signed by "The Author of Corruption and Intolerance," was issued by Carpenter: Rogers (who from this period onward ranks high among Moore's advisers) protesting against his continuance with this publisher. But the book attracted little notice; and the lack of success which attended these attempts in serious satire very naturally turned Moore back into the work where his triumph had been most gratifying. In January 1810 he published, with a dedication to Lady Donegal, the third instalment of his _Irish Melodies_, and it bears the stamp of its birthplace. The political passion is by far more openly declared than before, and in two or three of the lyrics--notably "After the Battle" and "The Irish Peasant to his Mistress"--it attains as high a pitch of poetry as is reached anywhere in its author's work. Part of the former may be quoted, if only to show the similarity between its motive and the central idea of "The Fire Worshippers." "Night closed around the conqueror's way, And lightnings showed the distant hill, Where those who lost that dreadful day Stood few and faint, but fearless still! The soldier's hope, the patriot's zeal, For ever dimmed, for ever crossed-- Oh! who shall say what heroes feel, When all but life and honour's lost? "The last sad hour of freedom's dream, And valour's task, moved slowly by, While mute they watched till morning's beam Should rise and give them light to die." The twelve lyrics of this number, together with the thin brochure of _The Sceptic_, are all that Moore had to show for the months from July or August 1808 to December 1810, which make up the only long continuous period of his adult life spent in Ireland. We have little record of his doings during that time, and the most significant part of it is to be found in a little quarto, privately printed, which details the performances of the Kilkenny Theatre. Published in 1825, this little book was made the subject by Moore of an article in the _Edinburgh Review_ for October 1827. Its preface sketches briefly the history of a craze for private theatricals which pervaded Ireland in the years from 1760 onwards. But nowhere else does the passion appear to have established itself so strongly as on the banks of the Nore, where a company was got together in 1802 under the auspices of a local gentleman, Mr. Richard Power. Originally the performances lasted for a week, but soon the programme was arranged for a fortnight, and in one case for three weeks. The event was annual till 1819, when the Kilkenny Theatre was closed for ever--marking, as Moore says in his review, the end of the social period in Ireland.