Dr. Johnson says in his “Tour to the Hebrides”:  “We are now treading that illustrious island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessing of religion.  That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.”  The monastery which Columba founded here was doubtless of the same character as the establishments in Ireland.  Many of these Celtic buildings were made of the branches of trees and supported by wooden props.  It was some time before properly-constructed wooden churches or monasteries became general in these wild regions.  In such rude huts small libraries were collected and the monks trained to preach.  Ireland was then the center of knowledge in the North.  Greek, Latin, music and such science as the monks possessed were taught to eager pupils.  Copies of their manuscripts are still to be found all over Europe.  Their schools were open to the rich and poor alike.  The monks went from house to house teaching and distributing literature.  As late as the sixteenth century, students from various parts of the Continent were to be found in these Irish schools.

There is an interesting story related of Columba’s literary activities.  It is said that on one occasion while visiting his master, Finnian, he undertook to make a clandestine copy of the abbot’s Psalter.  When the master learned of the fact, he indignantly charged Columba with theft, and demanded the copy which he had made, on the ground that a copy made without permission of the author was the property of the original owner, because a transcript is the offspring of the original work.  Putnam, to whom I am indebted for this story, says:  “As far as I have been able to ascertain, this is the first instance which occurs in the history of European literature of a contention for a copyright.”  The conflict for this copyright afterwards developed into a civil war.  The copy of the Latin Psalter “was enshrined in the base of a portable altar as the national relic of the O’Donnell clan,” and was preserved by that family for thirteen hundred years.  It was placed on exhibition as late as 1867, in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.

Enough has now been said to enable the reader to understand something of the spirit and labors of the monks in an age characteristically barbaric.  For five centuries, from the fifth to the tenth, the condition of Europe was deplorable.  “It may be doubted,” says an old writer, “whether the worst of the Caesars exceeded in dark malignity, or in capriciousness of vengeance, the long-haired kings of France.”  The moral sense of even the most saintly churchmen seems to have been blunted by familiarity with atrocities and crimes.  Brute force was the common method of exercising control and administering justice.  The barbarians were bold and independent, but cruel