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DUBLIN:

PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS,

BY M. H. GILL.

Presented to the Ven

Heury Cotton D.C.L
Archdeacon of Cashel

by the Provost & Senior Fellows
of Trinity College Dublin.

DEC 1.2 1938

CI ··UST

ד

ΤΟ

THE PROVOST AND SENIOR FELLOWS

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN,

THIS EDITION

OF THE WORKS OF ARCHBISHOP USSHER,

UNDERTAKEN AT THEIR REQUEST,

AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR EXPENSE,

IS INSCRIBED,

BY THEIR FAITHFUL, HUMBLE SERVANT,

THE EDITOR.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

THE EDITOR deeply regrets that he has been compelled to delay for so long a period the publication of the Works of Archbishop Ussher. When he undertook the task at the request of the Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, he was not aware of the difficulties which he had to encounter, and he entertained hopes of some leisure being afforded to him, which have not been realized. A combination of unexpected circumstances threw upon him a quantity of public business, which was sufficient to occupy the time of the most diligent, while the duties of his Professorship alone were pressing upon him with increased severity from the interruptions of long-continued and repeated illness, which obliged him at different periods to seek relief in another country. The Editor is very unwilling to speak so much of himself, but he feels great anxiety to make a sufficient apology for the delay to those, who must be unacquainted with the difficulties which impeded the progress of the work.

vi

In editing the works of Archbishop Ussher the great difficulty arose from the unusual number of quotations to be found in them. The Editor has endeavoured to verify all these quotations, and he has changed the references to the more modern and more generally used editions. The numerous quotations from the Fathers he has referred to the Benedictine editions, whenever they existed, unless, as it sometimes happened, the Archbishop quoted a passage from spurious writings, which they rejected altogether. In other cases he has named the edition. in the place where the quotation from an author first occurred. The labor and time necessary for such a work can be estimated only by those who have been engaged in similar undertakings. There are, no doubt, many omissions, and for these the Editor can only plead the excuse of the Roman poet:

Verum opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum.

He fears, too, that in some places errors of the Press have occurred. For this his apology must be, that he was at a considerable distance from the printing office when most of the work was printed, and that the printers had to struggle against the difficulties of very bad writing, more particularly in the Eastern languages.

A more agreeable duty now remains for him to discharge, to return his grateful thanks for assistance afforded him during the work. The first place must be appropriated to his valued friend, the Rev. James H. Todd, D. D., who, amidst numerous avocations, has

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