Incidents of my life, professional, literary, social, with services in the cause of Ireland / by Thomas Addis Emmet.
- Thomas Addis Emmet
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Incidents of my life, professional, literary, social, with services in the cause of Ireland / by Thomas Addis Emmet. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
536/631 page 395
![An Exhaustive Work the special training for such an undertaking. I could have repeated in my own words the content of so-called history, as all others have done, but I followed an entirely different plan, of far more use for educational purposes, in showing the result of England’s misrule, and as of neces- sity my knowledge was limited, I have used what contemporary writers have placed on record and so far as possible have given the Irish and English version, and tried when it could be done to prove my case on English testimony. I used no quotations at second-hand without having the original text in my possession for verification. The result has been that I thus accumulated a greater amount of valuable information as a book of reference than any other writer has succeeded in doing. Moreover, the work contains as complete an index as was ever issued, since it is believed to be with cross-references an exhaustive one. As all that a writer had placed on record in relation to any given subject is quoted, word for word, the reader has placed within his reach the material contents, winnowed out from what would constitute a larger li- brary relating to Ireland than exists anywhere, in public or private hands. This work has extended over many years, and as I have often had no use for many works I have consulted, after I had verified the quotation, they have been resold when purchased, or returned when borrowed or hired, so that my library contains but a small portion of the works I have con- sulted. The same course was followed in relation to hundreds of books or pamphlets which were rejected from being of doubtful value, or con- taining nothing which could be utilized. The mode of arrangement of the material and the full quotations thus render the work both original and unique. Throughout the volumes I placed at the head of each chapter, and elsewhere, a terse extract from some writer to catch the eye, and more likely to be remembered than if simply read and passed over in the text. For instance, showing the necessity for Home Rule, that a people may form a government best suited to their wants, the following would always be remembered: For a good government a nation forms its institutions as a shell-fish forms its shell, by a sort of slow exudation from within which gradually hardens as an external deposit, and must therefore befitted to the shape of that which it invests and protects. Aubrey de Vere. Her [Ireland] virtues are her own—her vices have been forced upon her. Robert Holmes. A people without a language of its own is only half a nation. Thomas Davis.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28034776_0541.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
