introduced it into Ireland, and in time brought the harsh dialects of the old natives to give way to it. It has been harmonized out of the original consonantal pronunciation of the Celtic, and must be particularly distinguished from the tongue spoken in the Celtic Gaul, which even in the time of the emperor Julian was intolerably grating to a Roman ear. Had the Scots (as some suppose) arrived here immediately from that country, or immediately from Britain, they would undoubtedly have retained the articulation and syntax used in those countries. But we find the reverse of this absolutely; no two languages, having a community of words, differing more in construction and cadence, than those used in Ireland and Wales. These differences evince beyond all dispute, that both have originated from different Celtic nations, though they still retain the simple signs in each, which were used primevally by their Gomerian ancestors. It is remarkable of the old Scottish also, that it is replete with those abstract and technical terms, which barbarians or unlettered nations are strangers to, but which civilized nations can never want. The great number of these technical terms, adapted to most of the wants of men in the most enlightened times, declare the speakers to be a nation, who cultivated their intellectual faculties before they had any acquaintance with Greek or Roman learning, and (for the reasons we have assigned) that they have not borrowed those artificial and abstract terms from Britain or the Celtic Gaul, but from a Celtic country superior in knowledge to either; and this could be no other than Spain." Antiquity of the lan spoken by the Irish. In confirmation of the great antiquity of the lan guage now guage now spoken by the native Irish, and grammatically taught by the professors of it, some of whom have published grammars, dictionaries, and essays upon it, is that wonderful discovery made by General Vallancey, that the Punic scene, given by Plautus in his Panulus, which had for ages baffled the erudition of the grammarians, scholiasts, and philologists, to de. cypher or understand, turns out to be perfectly intelligible to the Irish scholar. It contains about 25 punic lines, which, when properly marshalled, without alteration of a letter (for the words of a dead language had from the ignorance of editors run one into another, and the syllables been improperly separated from each other), approach infinitely nearer to the modern Irish, than the English now in use is to that, which was written and spoken 300 years ago; although the time, at which the Carthagenian colony left Phoenicia, to the period of Plautus, was about 600 years: and the whole computed interval between the arrival of the Milesian colony in Ireland, and the present period, at which these Punic lines are still intelligible to every adept in the Irish language, is above 3000 years*. Not one of these self-confident * This most surprising and demonstrative proof of the identity of the Phoenician and Irish tongue, is to be seen in Vail. Col. V. 2, and in Pars. Def. 138, &c. In order to induce the reader to carry his researches to the fountain head of this interesting instruction, a specimen of two of the many lines is submitted to his observation. Punic, or Carthagenian, as in the old editions of Plautus. Bythim mothym moetothii nelecthanti diasmachon. Pyrrhonites has attempted even an answer, much less a refutation of this demonstration of the learned Vallancy. It is manifest that a very slight knowledge of the Irish language would enable one to shew, that these lines in Plautus partook no more of modern Irish, than of modern English, of Latin, or of Greek, Were so obvious an assertion well-founded it would not have been withholden *. the authen It is more easy to deny than to prove the truth of Grounds of a remote fact. Length of time diminishes or weakens ticity of the all other means of proof, except the intrinsic evidence nals. Proper intervals arranged by General Vallancey. Byth lym! Mo thym nocto thii nel ech anti dias machon. Modern Irish. Beith liom. Mothyme noetaithe niel anti daise maccoine. Carthagenian, or Punic, and modern Irish, agreeing to a letter. Whenever she (Venus) grants a favour, she grants it linked with misfortunes. *The peculiarity of a living tongue claiming so remote an origin as the Irish, has worked on many absolute incredulity, that these ancient metrical annals are written in an intelligible language. Now if several persons, without any communication with each other, can extract by translation the same sense from the original text, the experiment will amount to absolute demonstration of the certainty and reality of the language in which they are written. This experiment was satisfactorily and successfully made by the learned Percy, as he informs us, in his preface to Old English Poetry. ancient an the of record itself. In law, deeds of a 20 years date prove themselves. There is neither merit nor conviction in bare incredulity from length of time. The simple narrative of a probable important fact of 2000 years date, in a language apparently coeval with the fact recorded, is a strong presumptive proof, that the fact did then happen, if the record can be fixed to no particular subsequent date, if it be clear of any juggle or fraud in the recording of it, and if no intermediate substantial alteration in the language of the record can be ascertained. The grounds, then, of the veracity of such fact will rest, 1. Upon the preexistence of the language in which it is recorded. 2. Upon the physical possibility and moral probability of the fact recorded. 3. Upon the tradition of the country running with the record. 4. Upon the mode of entering and preserving the records. 5. Upon the preexistence of a literary character, in which the record could be written. 6. Upon the general and uninterrupted submission and belief, through many centuries, of all those who understood the record, and the doubts, disbelief, or denial of those only who understood it not. 7. Upon the names of places, towns, personages, usages, and religious and civil ceremonies, which can only be explained by their having been occasioned by the facts and circumstances recorded. It is one thing to disbelieve, another to disprove tradition. Several co-existing and concurring * *The general tradition of a people is seldom to be wholly despised. Celt. Res. p. 138. written documents for many centuries corroborate tradition; the immemorial retention of compound and descriptive names of persons and places confirms it. logical The etymology of proper names and appellatives Of etymoopens so wide a field of curious disquisition to the proofs. learned, that it is impracticable to enter upon it without overleaping the proposed limits of this Dissertation. Suffice it to observe, that to all the old Irish proper names and immemorial appellatives, the knowledge of the modern Irish language furnishes the ready clue. The Irish scholar readily connects with their ancient annals the compound or historical formation of the name, or the descriptive topography of the appellative. The difficulty of giving credit to any historical narrative of events so remote as 1300 years before the birth of Christ, arises not out of the physical impossibility or the moral improbability of the events having happened, but from the difficulty of preservation and transmission. custom of great events We have spoken generally of the facility of tra- Ancient dition; to which it must be added, that it was the celebrating ancient oriental custom to celebrate great historical in verse. events in metre, which not only attracted the attention of the auditors, but helped to imprint upon the mind a more faithful recollection of the extraordinary achievements recited or rehearsed. Hence the original institution of bards, minstrels, or, as the Irish called them, Philleas, or Phillids, was most honourable; and the nation which held them in the highest estimation, possessed the most irrefragable proof of its |