Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots
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PREFACE. xxi
South, were not conclufive arguments. Thefe
circumftances might depend more upon food
and the peculiar nature of the foil and cli-
mate, than upon a different origin. The
manifeft difference in thofe dialeds of the
Celtic, which the Scots of the mountains
and the WeKh fpeak to this day, feems
more to argue their remote feparation from
one another. Their living as feparate flates,
from the earliefl times, could not 'have
effedluated fuch a change : othervvife we can-
not account for the identity of the Irilh and
Galic tongues, efpecially as the nations who
fpeak thofe languages were in no period of
antiquity that can be affigned, fubjedt to
the fame government.
This was one of the arguments that
mufl have influenced the judgment of the
author of the Differtations in his firft view
of the fubjed. But this difference of lan-
guage is eafily accounted for. The little
progrefs that navigation mufl have made in
the North of Europe when Britain was firfl
peopled, is a convincing argument, that the
firfl migrations into this ifland, was from
the nearell continent, which was the Bel-
gic divifion of Gaul. Thefe migrations
certainly happened in the eariiefl ftage of
fociety. The fubiiflence of a colony of fa-
b 3 vages
South, were not conclufive arguments. Thefe
circumftances might depend more upon food
and the peculiar nature of the foil and cli-
mate, than upon a different origin. The
manifeft difference in thofe dialeds of the
Celtic, which the Scots of the mountains
and the WeKh fpeak to this day, feems
more to argue their remote feparation from
one another. Their living as feparate flates,
from the earliefl times, could not 'have
effedluated fuch a change : othervvife we can-
not account for the identity of the Irilh and
Galic tongues, efpecially as the nations who
fpeak thofe languages were in no period of
antiquity that can be affigned, fubjedt to
the fame government.
This was one of the arguments that
mufl have influenced the judgment of the
author of the Differtations in his firft view
of the fubjed. But this difference of lan-
guage is eafily accounted for. The little
progrefs that navigation mufl have made in
the North of Europe when Britain was firfl
peopled, is a convincing argument, that the
firfl migrations into this ifland, was from
the nearell continent, which was the Bel-
gic divifion of Gaul. Thefe migrations
certainly happened in the eariiefl ftage of
fociety. The fubiiflence of a colony of fa-
b 3 vages
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/76286908 |
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Description | A selection of books from a collection of more than 500 titles, mostly on religious and literary topics. Also includes some material dealing with other Celtic languages and societies. Collection created towards the end of the 19th century by Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray. |
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Description | Selected items from five 'Special and Named Printed Collections'. Includes books in Gaelic and other Celtic languages, works about the Gaels, their languages, literature, culture and history. |
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