but after a while plucked up courage to open the Book of Ballymote
and ask what it was. Dr. Petrie and myself then entered into a short
explanation of the history and character of the books then present as
well as of ancient Gaedhelic documents in general. Moore listened
with great attention, alternately scanning the books and myself, and
then asked me, in a serious tone, if I understood them, and how I had
learned to do so. Having satisfied him upon these points, he turned
to Dr. Petrie and said:- "Petrie, these huge tomes could not have
been written by fools or for any foolish purpose. I never knew
anything about them before, and I had no right to have undertaken the
History of Ireland."'

And from that day Moore, it is said, lost all heart for going on with
his History of Ireland, and it was only the importunity of the
publishers which induced him to bring out the remaining volume.

COULD NOT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY FOOLS OR FOR ANY FOOLISH PURPOSE.
That is, I am convinced, a true presentiment to have in one's mind
when one looks at Irish documents like the Book of Ballymote, or
Welsh documents like the Red Book of Hergest. In some respects, at
any rate, these documents are what they claim to be, they hold what
they pretend to hold, they touch that primitive world of which they
profess to be the voice. The true critic is he who can detect this
precious and genuine part in them, and employ it for the elucidation
of the Celt's genius and history, and for any other fruitful purposes
to which it can be applied. Merely to point out the mixture of what
is late and spurious in them, is to touch but the fringes of the
matter. In reliance upon the discovery of this mixture of what is
late and spurious in them, to pooh-pooh them altogether, to treat
them as a heap of rubbish, a mass of middle-age forgeries, is to fall