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

PREFACE. xxiii
as they are with regard to countries and in-
dividuals. For thefe, and thefe only, the
author of the Diiiertations wrote. Difre-
garding the inattention of the many, could
he but fecure the approbation of the judi-
cious fev/.
These would be the fcntlments of the
author, could he ipeak for himlelf : but, I
am forry to fay, he is now infenfible of
praife or reproof. His death prevented his
putting the laft hand to this work. His
fon, to whofe care he left it, with a diffi-
dence which ought to be natural to a
very young man, chofc rather to give his
father's differtations to the world as they
ilood, than to attempt any amendments,
which perhaps might injure the memory of
a parent he tenderly loved.
The mofl of the nations of the modern
Europe look back with a blu(h, upon the
itrange fabrics of iidtion they polTefs for
their ancient hiftory. They conlider them
as, at once, the monuments of the puerile
credulity and folly of their anceflors. The
Scots of tliis age favv with unconcern, if
not with pleafure, forty of their ancient lift
of Kings expunged at once by Innes. This
furious regicide, endeavoured to make amends
to his countrymen, by giving them forty
b 4 great