The history, topography and antiquities of the county and city of Limerick, by P. Fitzgerald (and J.J. M'Gregor) 2 vols, Volume 1

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Page 152 - If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.
Page 13 - Her fruitful soil forever teems with wealth, With gems her waters and her air with health. Her verdant fields with milk and honey flow, Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow ; Her waving furrows float with bearded corn, And arms and arts her envied sons adorn.
Page 129 - That the Hibernians were lovers of learning, and distinguished themselves in those times of ignorance by the culture of the sciences ( ! ) beyond all other European nations...
Page 168 - After letters began to prevail, and history assumed a more stable form, by being committed to plain simple prose, these songs of the scalds or bards began to be more amusing than useful ; and in proportion as it became their business chiefly to entertain and delight, they gave more and more into embellishment, and set off their recitals with such marvellous fictions as were calculated to captivate gross and ignorant minds.
Page 130 - ... in France, Germany, and Italy, both during this and the following century. But that these Hibernians were the first teachers of the scholastic theology in Europe, and so early as the eighth century illustrated the doctrines of religion by the principles of philosophy) I learned but lately...
Page 340 - The fields are ravish'd from th' industrious swains, From men their cities, and from gods their fanes: The levell'd towns with weeds lie cover'd o'er; The hollow winds through naked temples roar; Round broken columns clasping ivy twined; O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind; The fox obscene to gaping tombs retires, And savage bowlings fill the sacred quires.
Page 166 - For in these the modulation is not slow and solemn, as in the instruments of Britain, to which we are accustomed, but the sounds are rapid and precipitate, yet, at the same time, sweet and pleasing. It is wonderful how, in such precipitate rapidity of the fingers, the musical proportions are observed, and, by their art, faultless throughout.
Page 163 - Invite you forth in all your gayest trim. Lend me your song, ye Nightingales ! oh pour The mazy-running soul of melody Into my varied verse ! while I deduce, From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings, The symphony of Spring, and touch a theme Unknown to fame, The Passion of the Groves.
Page 162 - O'Daly was obliged to leave the country for some time, and they availed themselves of the opportunity which his absence afforded, of impressing on the mind of Ellen, a belief of his falsehood, and of his having gone to be married to another ; after some time they prevailed on her to consent to marry a rival of O'Daly.
Page 119 - The Easter which I keep, I received from my elders, who sent me bishop hither; all our forefathers, men beloved of God, are known to have kept it after the same manner; and that the same may not seem to any contemptible or worthy to be rejected, it is the same which St. John the Evangelist, the disciple beloved of our Lord, with all the churches over which he presided, is recorded to have observed.

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