Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

52 LECTURE II.
its population. It is first occiipiecl at its point
nearest to a peopled country, and from thence
onwards throughout its territory. The analogy
here, as well as elsewhere, is manifestly in fa-
vour of the idea that Ireland was peopled, not
from Great Britain merely, but from Scotland.
The Irish coast is visible from the Scottish
along the whole of Galloway ; and from thence,
in accordance with all analogy, so far as known,
did the first colonists of Ireland set out. It
would require evidence of the very strongest
kind to prove that Scotland was originally peo-
pled from Ireland ; and that such evidence does
not exist we need hardly say. It would almost
be as well to suppose that our streams should
ascend our valleys, irrespective of all natural
law, as this. The possibility of Scotland being
peopled from Ireland we do not question ; but
tlie deviations from the natural course in all
processes such as the peopling of a country, are
so rare, and these events have generally a pro-
gress so uniform, that it is not upon slight
grounds, such as national traditions — if they are
traditions, more especially, that seem to gratify
national vanity — that our belief can be accorded
to an irregularity so marked as that which the
Irish theory involves. Thus, it is most proba-
ble tliat the Irish, and not the Endisli Clianiiol