Blair Collection > Collection of Gaelic proverbs, and familiar phrases

[ vii 3
ces in philofophy, before that ftudy was known
to the Greeks. Without being engravde on
brafs or marble, their juit and folid fenfe hath
preferved them in the memories of men, and
handed them down, as a valuable treafure, to
fucceeding generations. They have long fur-
vived the extinction of the Druids, and have
efcaped fafe from the wreck of ages. Of thefe
I have gathered as many as I could : and it ap-
peared to me, that a collection of the Wi s e
Sayings of Celtic Sages, could not fo proper-
ly be prefented to any perfon, as to that worthy
Peer, who has deferved ib well of his country,
by inciting men of learning to preferve the an-
cient monuments of that nation, to which he
does honour, and whofe honour he feeks. The
venerable Father of Hiftory fays, he wrote with
a view f, " that neither the memory of the pad
might be obliterated by time, nor great and ad-
mirable things lofe their due praife." Animated
by the fame genius, the Earl of Buchan's patrio-
tic fpirit has called forth a numerous body, to
recover, preferve, and continue thofe national
monuments that were ready to be fwallowed up
in the gulph of oblivion. Much of what they
may afterwards produce may therefore be juft-
Jy attributed to that warning voice which roufed
them from their carelefs {lumber, as Ulyfles
claimed
•]- See Herodotus in Clio. chap. i. as /*ut« r« yiwpna