Blair Collection > Elements of Gaelic grammar

INTRODUCTION. XVll
charges a first essay must necessarily be found
liable. Still there is room to hope that the work
may not prove wholly useless or unacceptable.
Imperfect as it is, I may be allowed to think I do
a service of its kind to my countrymen, by frank-
ly offering the fruits of my labour to such as may
choose to make use of them. It has been, if I mis-
take not, the misfortune of GaeHc grammar, that
its ablest friends have done nothing directly in its
support, because they were apprehensive that
they could not do every thing.
I CONFESS that my circumscribed knowledge of
the varieties of dialect used in different parts of
the Highlands, may have left me unacquainted
with some genuine Gaelic idioms, which ought
to be noticed in a work of this kind. The same
cause may have led me to assert some things in
too general terms, not being sufficiently informed
concerning the exceptions which may be found
in use, in some particular districts. I respectful-
ly invite, and will thankfully receive, the correc-
tion of any person, whose more accurate and ex-
tensive information enables him to supply my
omissions, or to rectify my mistakes.
In a few particulars I have differed from some
of the highest living authorities ; I mean those
gentlemen whose superior abilities are so con-
spicuous in the masterly translation of the sacred
fScriptures, with which the Highlands of Scotland
c are