this sort of reasoning is inconclusive and bewildering, and merely
carries us round in a circle. Again, it is worse than inconclusive
reasoning, it shows so uncritical a spirit that it begets grave
mistrust, when Mr. Williams ab Ithel, employed by the Master of the
Rolls to edit the Brut y Tywysogion, the 'Chronicle of the Princes,'
says in his introduction, in many respects so useful and interesting:
'We may add, on the authority of a scrupulously faithful antiquary,
and one that was deeply versed in the traditions of his order--the
late Iolo Morganwg--that King Arthur in his Institutes of the Round
Table introduced the age of the world for events which occurred
before Christ, and the year of Christ's nativity for all subsequent
events.' Now, putting out of the question Iolo Morganwg's character
as an antiquary, it is obvious that no one, not Grimm himself, can
stand in that way as 'authority' for King Arthur's having thus
regulated chronology by his Institutes of the Round Table, or even
for there ever having been any such institutes at all. And finally,
greatly as I respect and admire Mr. Eugene O'Curry, unquestionable as
is the sagacity, the moderation, which he in general unites with his
immense learning, I must say that he, too, like his brother Celt-
lovers, sometimes lays himself dangerously open. For instance, the
Royal Irish Academy possesses in its Museum a relic of the greatest
value, the Domhnach Airgid, a Latin manuscript of the four gospels.
The outer box containing this manuscript is of the fourteenth
century, but the manuscript itself, says O'Curry (and no man is
better able to judge) is certainly of the sixth. This is all very
well. 'But,' O'Curry then goes on, 'I believe no reasonable doubt
can exist that the Domhnach Airgid was actually sanctified by the
hand of our great Apostle.' One has a thrill of excitement at
receiving this assurance from such a man as Eugene O'Curry; one
believes that he is really going to make it clear that St. Patrick