 His was a time in which the study of Irish history and historical legend was rapidly on the wane...The "Aisling"... served to keep alive the leading traditions of the past.The uneducated peasant... did not advert to the fact that he was receiving a lesson in history... Perhaps there never was a poet so entirely popular-- never one of whom it could be more justly said "volitar vivus per ora virum" [He soars, alive in the mouths of the people].