Blair Collection > Elements of Gaelic grammar

XVlll INTRODUCTION.
are now blessed*. Here I have been careful to
state the grounds on which my judgment was
formed. In doing this, I would always be under-
stood to advance my opinion and propose my
reasons, with the view of suggesting them to the
consideration of my countrymen, rather than in
the expectation of having my conclusions univer-
sally sustained and adopted.
Among my grammatical readers, it is probable
that some may have formed to themselves ar-
rangements on the subject, different from mine.
Of these I have to request, that they do not form
a hasty judgment of the work, from a partial in-
spection of it ; nor condemn it merely because it
may differ from their preconceived schemes. Let
them indulge me wdth a patient perusal of the
whole, and a candid comparison of the several
parts of the system with each other. To a judi-
cious critic, some faults and many defects may
appear, and several improvements will occur.
On this supposition, I have one request more to
make ; that he join his efforts with mine in ser-
ving a common cause, interesting to our country,
and dear to every patriotic Highlander.
* A few examples of what I conceived to be deviations from
grammatical propriety, are given from the Gaelic Version of
the Bible. As the translation of the Prophetical Books under-
went a revision, the exceptionable passages in those Books have
been changed in the second edition^ from what they were as
they came out of the hands of the original translator. The cri-
ticism on those passages is however allowed to remain in this
edition of the Grammar; because the first edition of the Gaelic
Prophets is still in the hands of many, and because it often hap-
|)ens that « we can beist teach what is right by showing what is
wrong." LoXKilu