Excerpt from History of Ireland From the Invasion of Henry II, Vol. 1: With a Preliminary Discourse on the Ancient State of That Kingdom

At the Revolution, indeed, the favour and patronage of government encouraged Sir Richard Cox to such an attempt. But, however assiduous in his researches, he produced nothing better than an hasty, indigested, and imperfect Chronicle, ending with the final suppression oi the rebellion commenced in the year one thousand six hundred and forty-one. More than fourscore years have elapsed since the last commotions of Ireland, during this interval it hath made successful advances in refinement and literature: and the descendants of the English settlers in this country seem to have had both leisure and inducement, to record those actions in which their ancestors took so considerable a part. But men of letters thought, perhaps, too meanly of the subject, they were deterred by the darkness in which some periods were involved, by the painful and disgusting pursuit of materials not yet disclosed, or not yet wrought into any regular narrative, or by the labour of selection from writers, who viewed their favourite object with an eye too partial, and detailed every incident, with an oppressing minuteness.

But the circumstances of Ireland were a still more dispiriting obstacle to the historian of this country. Prejudices and animosities could not end with its disorders.

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