THE WORLD'S DEBT TO THE IRISH 
perfect training in obedience to the artist's will. 
Such circles are to be seen in every page of the 
Book of Kells. There is no instance of a letter O 
in the large round lettering of this book in which the 
slightest sign of a swerving hand is perceptible.” 
Quite needless to say for anyone who has had a 
chance to look at the Book of Kells even a little 
carefully, there are ever so many examples of curves 
of all kinds, circles, spirals, ellipses, and the surprise 
is the perfection of them all. The perfect line is the 
typical characteristic of the book. 
There is perhaps one thing that is even more 
surprising and that is that all this minute decoration 
is accomplished so meticulously though the seeing of 
it properly and appreciatively in our time requires 
the use of a rather strong magnifying glass. We 
have no hint in tradition that the Irish artists actu- 
ally used magnifying glasses in the doing of the 
decoration of the pages but it would seem as though 
they must have had them. 
It must have required almost infinite patience to 
draw the extremely fine lines in such absolutely regu- 
lar curves as occur so constantly in the Book of Kells 
in anything like the perfection which they exhibit. 
Manifestly the hearts of the Irish scribes were in 
their work and no labor was too much and no 
patience too great to demand of them in the crea- 
tion of this beautiful copy of the Scriptures which 
they were unalterably intent on making as near per- 
fect as human hand and eye could possibly accom- 
plish that purpose. 
126