Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

preface. b
I followed this clue, till I had, in some
degree, unravelled that ancient scheme, bj
analogies, Λ\^ΰΰ1ι appeared, upon repeated,
and severe trials, to be taunded in truth.
Still I conceived the notion to be exclu-
sively Celtic. In the first periods, therefore, and
stages, of the analysis, I applied the several
principles of speech to Celtic dialects alone.
The result Λvas gratifying to curiosity ; but it
rested there.
Λ perpetual jealousy agauist theoretical
delusions, or partial experiments, determined
me to enlarge the field of inciuiry. It appeared
improbable, that radical principles, of an
art so general, should have been discovered
originally by the Celtic race, whose knoΛvledge
of any letters at all, has been doubted by some
of the modern critics in historical disquisition ; —
or that such a people, as tliey are in general
described, should have been the selected
guardians of those principles.