Blair Collection > History of the Celtic language

CELTIC LANGUAGE. 61
Cornish and Armoric, of Celtic origin.^' The grand-
child cannot certainly be supposed to be more
primitive than the grandsire ? Clear, however, as
the identity may be to us, and willing to allow the
venerable Bishop's remarks every due force, we
have presented the reader in a foot-note with a
short comparison or collation, which, in our opinion,
ought for ever to set the question at rest. The
reader will there see that writing was the chief
cause of the confusion, from the difference in
the power of sound given by this and that tribe to
this consonant and to that vowel, and by the con-
founding of nouns, verbs, moods, and tenses: this
is the reason why it is that the most iUiterate Celt
speaks the best and most classical Gaelic ! He
studies the volume of Nature, and Nature teaches
him her own pronunciation : this is the source of
radices, and, being rehearsed in his ear, he echoes
them ; but let him begin to express this language by
symbols, called letters, for the first time to a nation,
and chance if a succeeding generation will more
than agree about his meaning.