Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 4

360 A PLEA FOR GAELIC.
Let those wlio say that there is no GaeHc htera-
ture read Professor O'Curry's Lectures, and tliey will
there find that the best scholars only distinguish be-
tween Scotch and Lish Gaelic as between dialects of the
same tongue, and that there is a mass of unexplored
Gaelic literature still extant. There are two Professors,
one at the New Catholic University ; a Government
Commission is employed about " the Brehon laws," as
they are called, and a Gaelic MS. about " Danish inva-
sions," forms one of the historical series pubHshed under
the authority of the Master of the Polls. All sorts of
questions are sure to arise as these documents are brougtt
to light and read ; and without Gaelic no scholar caa
give an opinion on them. Questions relative to early
Christianity may turn on words in Gaelic manuscripts,
and who is to say what may be found in such an un-
explored field? Old Irish prophecies have actually
been spread amongst the peasantry for j)olitical pur-
poses. If it was important for the interests of
the State to found a chair of Sanscrit, which nobody
speaks, surely there ought to be some means of learning
Gaehc devised for England, where a large section of
the people speak the language still. Surely the few
relics of Scotch Gaelic hterature which remain are
worthy of more attention. Till rescued from oblivion,
and placed in safety by the patriotic exertions of Mr.
Skene, their very existence had been forgotten, and
some valuable MSS., the property of the Highland
Society, have disappeared within the last sixty years.
It is surely a mistake to say that there is no lite-
rature in a language, and to set about proving it to