Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, Vol. 4
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| Partner: | buecher.de |
| Hersteller: | Forgotten Books (Wills, James) |
| Stand: | 2015-08-04 03:50:33 |
Produktbeschreibung
Excerpt from Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, Vol. 4: From the Earliest Times to the Present Period, Arranged in Chronological Order, and Embodying a History of Ireland in the Lives of Irishmen We have already explained the manner in which the individual celebrity of the persons whom it has been hitherto our task to notice, has arisen in a greater degree from the station which it was their fortune to occupy in the political scene, than to any of the ordinary causes which entitle illustrious characters to historic notice. As, however, the course of events became more quiet, uniform, and unmarked by violent and stormy changes, it was an evident consequence that the number and individual prominence of such subjects should also diminish in the same proportion. Hence it is, that in the long interval of political torpor, from the treaty of Limerick, through the reigns of Anne and the first two Georges - the remainder of this division - our political persons are comparatively without note. Such is the ground upon which we conceive it expedient to adopt the course which we have described, by selecting a few names, rather with a view to offer a brief outline of the history of their time, than to protract our labour, without interest to the reader, by a dull array of obscure politicians, and official persons. We should, indeed, most willingly have avoided entering upon even the most cursory notice of the principal questions which offer themselves in the political history of the period now to occupy our attention; for the time when they may be discussed with historic indifference, is hardly yet arrived. Though dull and barren of great or striking events, the period immediately following the revolution was troubled by party dissensions which, to the impartial mind, are painful to contemplate; and to the prepossessions of party feeling, are identified with the fierce and clamorous questions by which the existing generation is possessed. Like every period of our history, the reign of Queen Anne has, with few exceptions, been too largely seen through the coloured media of party feeling, and the rhetorical exaggerations and artifices of those who have repeated their illusory statements until they have believed them. To this unhappily large class of writers and speakers, and to the still larger classes who draw their entire stock of historic opinion from them, the whole history of Ireland is so discoloured by fallacy and passionate prejudice, that no candour can come up to the measure of their exactions, and no concession short of a surrender of truth and reason can satisfy their expectations. The very intent of history is overlooked; and many readers, of the most respectable character and intelligence in other matters, do not scruple openly to demand from the historian some evidence of national, or rather party feeling. Now, for the general good sense, and even for the zealous nationality of such readers, we are quite sincere in professing our respect and regard; but we must here again (as we have often done) remind them, that the office of the historian is as strictly judicial as that of the judge; and that it is his duty, and indeed the most difficult and responsible portion of his task, to exclude all nationality, and all the predilections of sect and party from his mind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
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