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

90 LECTURE III.
literature of lona from the Irish annalists ;
notices, however, so hrief, that little can be made
of them save the evidence they afford of the
fact that there was literary cultm^e then. In
the ninth century the Northmen, to whom so
much of our civilization has been attributed,
made their appearance among the western isles,
and indicated their love of letters, in which
they have been held to be so superior to the
Celts, by burning the monastery of lona, and
putting to death sixty-eight of the inmates.
Three times within eight years was this seat of
learning burnt by these noble Teutons, and the
great luminary of the west extinguished in its
own ashes. In this we have ample evidence of
the love of letters which ever distinguished the
Goth, while his Celtic brother cherished for
them a barbarous and revolting enmity. It
must be acknowledged that it is little less credit-
able to be of the same lineage with the learned
Columba, and his no less learned and zealous
successors, than of these marauders, who, with-
out regard to letters or sanctity, carried desola-
tion whithersoever they went.
* It is gratifying to Celtic scholars to know that an edition of
this hitherto scarce work is just published for the Irish Archaeo-
logical and Celtic Society, with copious notes by one of the ablest
living Celtic scholars, Dr Reeves of Ballymena.