also, in the Apostolic sense, "made itself all things to all men."
As legislator, Saint Patrick waged no needless war against the
ancient laws of Ireland. He purified them, and he amplified them,
discarding only what was unfit for a nation made Christian. Thus
was produced the great "Book of the Law," or "Senchus Mohr,"
compiled A.D. 439.

The Irish received the Gospel gladly. The great and the learned, in
other nations the last to believe, among them commonly set the
example. With the natural disposition of the race an appropriate
culture had concurred. It was one which at least did not fail to
develop the imagination, the affections, and a great part of the
moral being, and which thus indirectly prepared ardent natures, and
not less the heroic than the tender, to seek their rest in spiritual
things, rather than in material or conventional. That culture,
without removing the barbaric, had blended it with the refined. It
had created among the people an appreciation of the beautiful, the
pathetic, and the pure. The early Irish chronicles, as well as
songs, show how strong among them that sentiment had ever been. The
Borromean Tribute, for so many ages the source of relentless wars,
had been imposed in vengeance for an insult offered to a woman; and
a discourtesy shown to a poet had overthrown an ancient dynasty.
The education of an Ollambh occupied twelve years; and in the third
century, the time of Oiseen and Fionn, the military rules of the
Feine included provisions which the chivalry of later ages might
have been proud of. It was a wild, but not wholly an ungentle time.
An unprovoked affront was regarded as a grave moral offence; and
severe punishments were ordained, not only for detraction, but for a
word, though uttered in jest, which brought a blush on the cheek of
a listener. Yet an injury a hundred years old could meet no