with Latin, Greek, or German. I was thus enabled to start with some hundreds of roots already familiar to me under a slightly altered form. While pursuing this bookish method, I had, of course, at the same time, being resident among the hills some three or four months every summer, ample opportunity to pick up various current vocables from the mouth of the people. After some years of altogether fitful and broken study in this fashion (for I never dreamt at first of making a serious business of the language), I began to be annoyed by that disagreeable sensation of incompleteness which so often accompanies fragmentary and superficial knowledge; so, without abandoning altogether the easy beaten track of the Gaelic Testament, I plunged for a bold variety into the bright streams and dark lochs of lyric poetry in the Highlands, and began to rejoice in the sweet melody of Mairi laghach and other popular Celtic airs. But as a man cannot be singing always, any more than he can make a dinner upon honey, I looked about for prose in various directions; and as I happened to be living not far from the district where Prince Charlie landed in 1745, I found the life of this brilliant adventurer by Mackenzie (Edinburgh, 1844) most suitable for my purpose. Anon I stumbled on the History of Scotland by Mackenzie, and the History of the Reformation by Mackay, with a translation of Fox's Book of Martyrs by Dr. MacGillivray; not to mention various entertaining scraps of biography, history, and fictitious narrative, which I found in the Gaelic periodical called The Gael. This style of reading furnished me by degrees with a pretty large vocabulary, but gave me no help in the ready use of those colloquial terms which are most necessary for intercourse with the people. To remedy this defect, my studies sought their natural complement in the Tighland Tales by John Campbell of Islay, and the High

land Dialogues by the Reverend Norman Macleod, the father of the late distinguished genial evangelist and apostle of that name, in the Teachdaire, an account of which will be given in Chapter v. below. After this there remained nothing for me to do but to keep steadily reading on, an hour or two a day, till by frequent repetition the dictionary should become superfluous. This, of course, was merely a matter of resolution: the road was plain; the only remaining difficulty was to go on step by step, and not to flag; as indeed it will be found generally that it is weakness of will, and not lack of capacity, that is the great bar to intellectual progress among those who have any wish to know.1

The objections which are generally urged to the study of the Gaelic language are of that description which it is always easy for ignorance to invent, but which are so utterly false and flimsy that they seem scarce worthy of answer to a person who knows anything. A large number, indeed, of current fallacies sported on all public questions might be conveniently ticketed under the category-apologies for doing nothing. It is so comfortable to sit on your easy chair after dinner, with a bottle of orthodox old port before you, and your pipe in your mouth, and to think that every man is "a d―d fool" who wishes you to do anything beyond the customary routine of your shop, or your church, or your paternal estate. It may be useful, however, occasionally to press logic into the service against this tremendous power of inertness, if not with the hope to move it, at least with the satisfaction of making certain very clever people look stupid for a

1 After writing this, I found that for acquiring a knowledge of colloquial Gaelic, there are few books preferable to the Gaelic translation of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Edinburgh, 1840). There is also a large quarto edition, more recent, which I have seen, but do not possess.

moment.

Well, in the first place we are asked, Why maintain an uncouth language, which keeps people in barbarism, and builds up an impenetrable wall of partition between the Celt and the rest of the civilised world? To which I have several answers: first, the language is not barbarous, but a very fine and polished dialect, rather too polished, somewhat like French, and specially adapted for music, as we shall prove by and by; secondly, it is not so much the possession of their own language, their own traditions, and their own sentiments, that separates the Gael from the rest of the world, but the remoteness of his geographical position, and the remissness of the British Government in not having long ago organised an efficient school-system in those remote regions, of which the teaching of English should have formed an integral part. And as for the mother tongue, in the parallel case of Lowland boys we know that it is not the knowledge of English at school that prevents a boy from learning Latin, but it is either the bad method of his master, who does not know how to teach him, or it is the indifference of the boy, who does not care to learn. But this latter element, however active in a classical school, certainly does not show itself in the Highlands; rather the contrary: every poor Highlander is, above all things, eager to learn English; and if he does not see his aspirations always crowned with success, it is the fault of his superiors, who do not send schoolmasters into the glens, properly equipped with the two-edged sword of the "Beurla" and the native Gaelic, as every Highland teacher ought unquestionably to be. The idea that a knowledge of the mother tongue, under such circumstances, acts as a hindrance to the acquisition of English is entirely unfounded. The mother tongue is there; and, instead of building up a wall against the Saxon,

which the young Gael cannot overleap, it is just the natural stepping-stone which you must use to bring the sturdy mountaineer into the domain of your more smooth civilisation. The policy of stamping out the characteristics of a noble race, by carrying on a war against the language, is essentially barbarous; it can be excused only, if excusable at all, by the existence of such a political mis-alliance as that between Russia and Poland; and, in fact, I fear there is to be found, in this quarter of the world, a certain not altogether inconsiderable section or party who hold, if not in theory, yet practically, by this Russian principle. The sooner-I have heard them say as much-the Saxon, who is God's peculiar elect vessel, can swallow up the Celt, so that there shall be no more Irishmen in Ireland, and no more Highlandmen in the Highlands, so much the better. This is a doctrine altogether in harmony with the teaching of a distinguished master of physical science, which, transferred to the moral world, simply means that the stronger are always right when they leap upon the back of the weaker, and use them for their own purposes; but it is a doctrine directly in the teeth of all gospel, and which allows a man to play the wolf or the fox whenever he can against his brethren, and baptise himself, with all cheapness, a hero for the achievement. Are the men who advocate such inhuman measures not sometimes touched with shame when they find themselves identified with the old Roman robbers, who civilised the world with the sword of rude invasion, and of the march of whose legions it was justly said by their own wise historian,-Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem adpellant? St. Paul, of course, inculcates the exact contrary doctrine; for he tells us to "condescend to men of low estate," and to " weep with them that weep," and to "rejoice with them that do rejoice." How any Highland proprietor can reconcile his belief in these texts with

B

the principle of forcibly stamping out the Gaelic language I cannot comprehend. But I will put down here what the noble son of a good Gaelic laird has printed with regard to the position of landed proprietors in this matter. "I find," says, John Campbell of Islay, "that lectures are delivered to Sunday-school children to prove that Gaelic is part of the Divine curse, and Highland proprietors tell me that it is a bar to the advancement of the people.' But if there is any truth in this assertion, it is equally true, on the other hand, that English is a bar to the advancement of proprietors if they cannot speak to those who pay their rents; and it is the want of English, not the possession of Gaelic, which retards the advancement of those who seek employment where English is spoken. So Highland proprietors should learn Gaelic, and teach English." This is sense and justice. The Gaelic people, while they do not forget their Gaelic, should study English; and the Highland proprietors, retaining their English, should study Gaelic.

So much for the middle wall of partition. But, in the second place, it is often said, Why should a man go out of his way to study a language which has no literature? The answer to this is twofold,-first, that the language has a literature, and a very valuable one; second, that we are not arguing here with persons who are expected to go out of their way to learn a foreign language, but with those who, having a native language at their fireside, go out of their way to neglect, to disown, and to forget it. As to the literature, we shall show particularly what it is worth by and by. Meanwhile, the existence of such a book as M'Kenzie's Beauties of Gaelic Poetry (which would make a score of volumes as poetry is printed), with the simple mention of the names of Alastair M'Donald, Duncan Ban M'Intyre,

1 A Plea for Gaelic, in Highland Tales, vol. iv. p. 358.