In conclusion, we shall only remark, that the venerable group of ruins of which we have attempted this slight sketch, considered as an object of interest to pleasure tourists, and those of our own country in particular, have not as yet been sufficiently appreciated; and that, as Sir Walter Scott truly remarked, though the scenery of our lakes and mountains may be rivalled in many parts of the sister islands, there is nothing of their class, viewed as a whole, comparable in interest with the ruins on the Rock of Cashel.
POETICAL PROPHECY OF BISHOP BERKELEY.--To our illustrious countryman. Bishop Berkeley, may be with justice applied what he himself says of his favourite, Plato, that "he has joined with an imagination the most splendid and magnificent, an intellect fully as deep and clear." A morsel of poetry from such a writer ought to be preserved as a literary curiosity, and as a proof of the great variety of his talents; but when we consider that the following was written almost in a prophetic spirit, more than a century ago, and consequently long before the events to which he seems to allude could well have been anticipated, it has an additional claim upon our notice.
There shall be sung another golden age, The rise of empires and of arts, The good and great inspiring epic rage, The wisest heads and noblest hearts.
Not such as EUROPE breeds in her decay; Such as she bred when fresh and young, When heavenly flame did animate her clay, By future poets shall be sung.
_Westward the course of empire bends its way_-- The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama and the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last."
THE SCENERY AND ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND ILLUSTRATED,
"Know thyself," was the wise advice of the ancient Greek philosopher; and it is certainly desirable that we should know ourselves, and take every pains in our power to acquire self-knowledge. But the task is by no means an easy one; and hence the poet Burns well exclaims,
"Oh, wad some power the giftie gi'e us, To see oursells as others see us; It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion. What airs in dress and gait wad lea' us, And e'en devotion!"
Determined, however, as we for own part always are, to acquire a knowledge of ourselves, we felt no small gratification at the opportunity which, we presumed, would be amply afforded us by the work of Messrs Bartlett and Willis, the first an English artist, and the second an American _litterateur_, who have left their homes, in a most commendable spirit of philanthropy, to depict our scenery and antiquities, and to tell us all that it behoves us to know about them and ourselves. We accordingly lost not a moment in possessing ourselves of the precious treasure that would, as we hoped, "the giftie gi'e us, to see oursells as others see us;" and verily we must acknowledge that our wonderment during its perusal has been excessive, and that it has convinced us that we never knew ourselves before, or ever saw any thing about us with proper eyes. Henceforward we shall be cautious how we trust to the evidence of our senses for any thing we may see, for it is pretty plain that hitherto they have been of no manner of use to us. They have deceived and bamboozled us our whole lives long; and from the present moment we will trust to none save those of Messrs Bartlett and Willis--at least we will never trust to our own.