Tales and Novels, vol 4 | Page 2

period, or the
pointing of an antithesis.
That the ignorant may have their prejudices as well as the learned
cannot be disputed; but we see and despise vulgar errors: we never bow
to the authority of him who has no great name to sanction his
absurdities. The partiality which blinds a biographer to the defects of
his hero, in proportion as it is gross, ceases to be dangerous; but if it be
concealed by the appearance of candour, which men of great abilities
best know how to assume, it endangers our judgment sometimes, and
sometimes our morals. If her grace the Duchess of Newcastle, instead

of penning her lord's elaborate eulogium, had undertaken to write the
life of Savage, we should not have been in any danger of mistaking an
idle, ungrateful libertine, for a man of genius and virtue. The talents of
a biographer are often fatal to his reader. For these reasons the public
often judiciously countenance those who, without sagacity to
discriminate character, without elegance of style to relieve the
tediousness of narrative, without enlargement of mind to draw any
conclusions from the facts they relate, simply pour forth anecdotes, and
retail conversations, with all the minute prolixity of a gossip in a
country town.
The author of the following Memoirs has upon these grounds fair
claims to the public favour and attention; he was an illiterate old
steward, whose partiality to the family, in which he was bred and born,
must be obvious to the reader. He tells the history of the Rackrent
family in his vernacular idiom, and in the full confidence that Sir
Patrick, Sir Murtagh, Sir Kit, and Sir Condy Rackrent's affairs will be
as interesting to all the world as they were to himself. Those who were
acquainted with the manners of a certain class of the gentry of Ireland
some years ago, will want no evidence of the truth of honest Thady's
narrative: to those who are totally unacquainted with Ireland, the
following Memoirs will perhaps be scarcely intelligible, or probably
they may appear perfectly incredible. For the information of the
ignorant English reader, a few notes have been subjoined by the editor,
and he had it once in contemplation to translate the language of Thady
into plain English; but Thady's idiom is incapable of translation, and,
besides, the authenticity of his story would have been more exposed to
doubt if it were not told in his own characteristic manner. Several years
ago he related to the editor the history of the Rackrent family, and it
was with some difficulty that he was persuaded to have it committed to
writing; however, his feelings for "the honour of the family," as he
expressed himself, prevailed over his habitual laziness, and he at length
completed the narrative which is now aid before the public.
The editor hopes his readers will observe that these are "tales of other
times:" that the manners depicted in the following pages are not those
of the present age: the race of the Rackrents has long since been extinct
in Ireland; and the drunken Sir Patrick, the litigious Sir Murtagh, the
fighting Sir Kit, and the slovenly Sir Condy, are characters which could

no more be met with at present in Ireland, than Squire Western or
Parson Trulliber in England. There is a time when individuals can bear
to be rallied for their past follies and absurdities, after they have
acquired new habits and a new consciousness. Nations, as well as
individuals, gradually lose attachment to their identity, and the present
generation is amused, rather than offended, by the ridicule that is
thrown upon its ancestors.
Probably we shall soon have it in our power, in a hundred instances, to
verify the truth of these observations.
When Ireland loses her identity by an union with Great Britain, she will
look back, with a smile of good-humoured complacency, on the Sir
Kits and Sir Condys of her former existence.

CONTENTS:
CASTLE RACKRENT GLOSSARY FOOTNOTES
ESSAY ON IRISH BULLS
Introduction CHAP. I. Originality of Irish Bulls examined II. Irish
Newspapers III. The Criminal Law of Bulls and Blunders IV. Little
Dominick V. The Bliss of Ignorance VI. "Thoughts that breathe, and
Words that burn" VII. Practical Bulls VIII. The Dublin Shoeblack IX.
The Hibernian Mendicant X. Irish Wit and Eloquence XI. The Brogue
XII. Bath Coach Conversation XIII. Bath Coach Conversation XIV.
The Irish Incognito Conclusion Appendix Footnotes
AN ESSAY ON THE NOBLE SCIENCE OF SELF-JUSTIFICATION
ENNUI
THE DUN

CASTLE RACKRENT
Monday Morning.[A]
Having, out of friendship for the family, upon whose estate, praised be
Heaven! I and mine have lived rent-free, time out of mind, voluntarily
undertaken to publish the MEMOIRS of the RACKRENT FAMILY, I
think it my duty to say a few words, in the first place, concerning