with them: The Priest and Advocate informed and directed
the Conscience and Conduct; the Historian and Annalist recorded the
Institutions; the Poet and Musician celebrated and sung the Exploits of
their Kings and Leaders: No Wonder then this Kingdom should have been
revered at Home, and admired Abroad; when Religion formed, Erudition
nurtured, Philosophy strengthened, History preserved, Rhetorick adorned,
Musick softened, and Poesy refined, the National Wisdom and
Accomplishments; to all which was added, a thorough Knowledge of Tactics,
and great Skill and Agility in all the athletick Arts, and bodily
Exercises.

In the Versions of some original Codes exported by our Countryman, the
learned and pious St. _Fiechry_, still extant in the _Navarre_ Library at
_Paris_, the Constitutional Wisdom of _Ireland_ appears in a clear and
happy Light: Persons, Things, Actions, and Expressions, were cautiously
attended to, by the Laws; _Persons_, in their Minority, Youth, and
Manhood, according to their different Ranks in the State, so as by Care,
Education, and Discipline, to render them, some subservient, others
useful, some beneficial, and others ornamental thereunto. _Things_, so
carefully, as to prevent, by prohibatory Laws, Wastes of whatsoever Kind,
and to ascertain to each Individual, as well as Society, their proper and
distinct Rights. _Actions_, by directing those in general, and particular,
to the Honour of the Deity and Welfare of the Community: _Expression_, by
the penal Interdiction of prophane Cursing and Swearing, Obscenity,
Scurrility, Calumny, and Detraction, yet with a full Indulgence of proper
Satire against such as merited popular Reprehension, or Contempt; the
Satirist's Pen in those Days being as much dreaded, or rather more so,
than the Magistrate's Rod, and consequently as diligently avoided by a
Demeanour absolutely irreproachable.

It appeareth that, under the antient Government of _Ireland_, the
Education of the landed Gentry, when Luxury, with its wasteful Catalogue
of Vices, had not rendered Property so mutable and wavering as in modern
Ages, was provided for; whether by the immediate Care of Parents, or
essential Attention of Guardians, by the Laws of the Land; in order that
Gentlemen should, to the Antiquity of Birth and Possession, add the
important Dignity of Learning, and social Refinement of Arts: Since a Man
at the Head of an original Estate, who should want the necessary
Cultivation of Letters,