human
We can but hope, within the limited space at our disposal, to render a scanty and imperfect measure of justice to a work of such vast extent and varied erudition.... We would beg the reader, if he be disposed to doubt our opinion, to examine almost every single page out of the four thousand of which the work consists, in order that he may learn the true nature and extent of Mr. O'Donovan's editorial labours. Let him see the numberless minute verbal criticisms; the elaborate topographical annotations with which each page is loaded; the historical, genealogical, and biographical notices; the lucid and ingenious illustrations, drawn from the ancient laws, customs, traditions, and institutions of Ireland; the parallelisms and discrepancies of the narrative with that of other annalists, both native and foreign; the countless authorities which are examined and adjusted; the errors which are corrected; the omissions and deficiencies supplied; in a word, the curious and various learning which is everywhere displayed. Let him remember the mines from which all those treasures have been drawn are, for the most part, unexplored; that the materials thus laudably applied to the illustration of the text are in great part manuscripts which Ussher and Ware, even Waddy and Colgen, no to speak of Lynch and Lanigan, had never seen or left unexamined; many of them in a language which is to a great extent obsolete.