AN IRISH POOR SCHOLAR

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 137

AN IRISH POOR SCHOLAR

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man, and not a gravestone scribe,' quoth Master the Second, proudly. ' It's easy to see you are not acquainted

with the Latin tongue, Master G———,' was the lofty retort,

' or you'd know from Juvenal that the man the gods hate they make a schoolmaster.' [1]

It seems never to have struck either Master Duffy or his entertainers that he need have any other claim on their hospitalities than the glory his mere love of knowledge sheds upon his native glens. He brings the luck of an ancient Mascotte. He is a last descendant of the endowed scholars of Eirinn. And, truth to tell, the old man's entertainment would be a cheap price for a verbatim report of his observations by a winter fireside. I am too ignorant to measure, and too respectful to laugh at, the wondrous mechanical discoveries which still steadily shine before Master Duffy's eye of faith—his Valley of Diamonds, his Elysian Fields, his Holy Grail. There was an ancient prophecy that the discoverer of the secret of Perpetual Motion should be born on the south flank of Cruach-Phaudrig. Lochaun-nyalla is undoubtedly south of Cruach-Phaudrig, and the Master was no less indisputably born at Lochaun. Whatever may be the strict scientific value of his discovery of a force greater than air, steam, or water, he entertains a pathetic belief—for all his years and disappointments—that he has only to get a fair hearing in Dublin to convince the world of the value of his secret. When the withered old Master wants to live to see the Irish Parliament that he is told is soon to assemble in Dublin, I verily believe it is largely with some hope that one of its … continue reading »

[1] On the publication of this article, some kind people sent me subscriptions which are rendering Master Duffy's last days happy ones. His remark to the Rev. Father MacDermott who conveyed the good news to him was characteristic. 'Paedagogus iste totaliter extinctus est,' he cried, with a hearty laugh.

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