Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/9

viii ascending in her dungeon and mine, as if to remind the obscure dwellers there of the splendour abroad and above them. But it is the distinction of Ireland to have produced more of those eminent existences than almost any other nation in its day of misery. There seems to have been a springing and recuperative spirit in the land that felt the slightest removal of pressure, and rose.—The vegetation of the national mind was always blossoming out on the edge of winter,—her sunshine was always urging the skirts of the storm. But it is of the nature of the mighty intellect, and the saintly virtue, to pass upward when they have fulfilled their mission, and roused mankind to a noble emulation, or borne testimony against its abuse of the munificence of heaven.

It is the task of Biography to let such be not forgotten; and, if, it cannot reveal them to us in their early grandeur, at least to lead us to the spots hallowed by their presence,—to shew us the memorials of their hands, and point out the track by which they ascended to immortality.

The work to which we now solicit the public attention, contains the lives of persons who have thus illustrated their country. Of its execution we will not speak. No preface can supersede the judgment of the reader; but it has been compiled with industry, and corrected with care: the old has been remodelled, and the new has been received upon authority. We now recommend it to a people whose passions and prejudices have been always PATRIOTISM