Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1801 to 1840 > Cunntas aithghearr mu bheath agus bhiuthas, Iain Mhicionmhuinn, D.D. (John Love, D.D.), ministeir bh'ann an Anderston, fagus do Glasgho, ann an rosg

TO THE READER.
Is it not greatly to be lamented that the Gaelic, the language of about
half a million of our interesting countrymen, in its PRESENT WRITTEN
FORM, assumes an unintelligible and revolting aspect to many of those
who thoroughly understand it, and sincerely love it as a SPOKEN LAN¬
GUAGE, and this, too, even to many of them who are excellent English
scholars; and that, in consequence of its orthography, many passages
of the Gaelic Bible are much obscured? Indeed, until the pres¬
ent system of Gaelic orthography, which is a master-piece of absur¬
dity, is laid aside, and a cheaper and a more concise and perspicuous
is substituted in its stead, the attempt to make literature flourish in
Gaelic, and to enlighten Highlanders in liberal knowledge, even
through “ the language which is the key to their hearts,” will ulti¬
mately prove as unsuccessful as would an attempt to rear large crops
of wheat on the summit of Ben-nevis.
The author of the following production has ventured an attempt at
a concise and improved system of Gaelic orthography in the following
Memoir; while he has given the present orthography in the Elegy; and
the intelligent reader will mark the striking difference. While the author
confesses his inability for the task, and the difficulty of a first attempt