[6] "They worshipped fire as the representative of the Deity,
which they kept continually burning on the tops of their highest
mountains."--_Foreign Quarterly Review_, No. XV.: Art. "Popular Poetry,"
p. 77.
[7] That Ireland has not always presented so degrading and uncivilised
an aspect as now exists in that unhappy country, there is abundant
testimony to convince the most incredulous. Camden, an author by no
means partial on this score, says:--"The Irish scholars of St. Patrick
profited so notably in Christianity that, in the succeeding age, Ireland
was termed '_Sanctorum Patria_.'" Their monks so excelled in learning
and piety, that they sent whole flocks of most holy men into all parts
of Europe, "who were founders of the most eminent monasteries both there
and in Britain."
"A residence in Ireland," says a learned British writer, "like a
residence now at an university, was considered as almost essential to
establish a literary character." By common consent, and as a mark of
pre-eminence, Ireland obtained the title of _Insula Sanctorum et
Doctorum_.
At the Council of Constance, in 1417, the ambassadors from England were
not allowed to rank or take any place as the ambassadors of a nation.
The point being argued and conceded, that they were tributaries only to
the Germans, "they claimed their rank from Henry being monarch of
Ireland only, and it was accordingly granted."--_O'Halloran_.
[Illustration: SIR TARQUIN.]