Blair Collection > History of the Celtic language

CELTIC LANGUAGE. 41
settling- principally in Gaul, and spreading partly into Italy
under the name of Ausonians and Umbrians.
" In 570, before Christ, they undertook expeditions for the
purposes of conquest, but they were subdued by the Romans.
Their language was current in Gaul till the sixth or seventh
century, when it was superseded by the rustic Roman, which
by degrees became French. In Ireland and Scotland it has
remained with few alterations ; in Wales and Brittany it has
been more mixed,
" The Gauls must have peopled Britain at least as early as
500 years before Christ. The true ancient Britons are the
Highlanders of Scotland only ; they still call their language
Gaelic The Etruscans and Umbrians were originally
a branch of the Celts from Rhaetia, as is shown by the simi-
larity of the names of places in those countries, as well as by
the remains of Etruscan art found in that part of the Tyrol ;
they are supposed to have entered Italy through Trent, about
the year 1000 before Christ"
This is powerful and quite to the point. But it
is a pity to see the learned Professor groping his
way at noon, and that from want of a more perfect
knowledge of the Celtic. The most of the names
here enumerated are mere local distinctions and
transpositions, resolvable by the Celtic into one
great whole, as we shall attempt to establish ere
we have done.
The golden key to them, it is true, is the Cabala
in connexion with the solar worship with its varied
hierograms, or symbols, of which anon.