Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots

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PREFACE.
TH E following DifTertations are the
prodiKftion of the leifure hours of a
clergyman in one of the remoteft of the
Scottifli illes. Excluded, by the pecu-
fituation of the place of his refjdence,
from the fociety of the learned, he
indulged his fmgular paflion for litera-
ture among a few good books. Though the
natural bent of his genius turned towardsi
the belles-lettres, he fometimes aniufedhim-
felf in difquilitions of a more ferious nature^
Being mafter of the Celtic, in all its bran-
ches, he took pleafure in tracing other lan-
guages to that general fource of all the an-
tient and modern tongues of Europe. Froiii
inveftigations of this kind many difcoveries
in the ancient hiftory of nations arofe.
This naturally led to the examination of the
niafs of fiction, which almofj every nation
of Europe poiTeffes for the hiftory of their re-
motell anceftor?. The more he looked into
thefe legendary fabrics of antiquity, the lefs
he found them capable of bearing the teft
of criticifni. He therefore refolved to write
fome general dilTertations on that fabject,
a 5 which.