The Literature of the Highlanders: A History of Gaelic Literature from the Earliest Times to the Present Day |
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The Literature of the Highlanders: A History of Gaelic Literature from the ... Nigel MacNeill No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
Adamnan Albannach Albin ancient appears Argyllshire ballads bard battle became Book brave Brigit Brythons Campbell Celtic Celts century character chief Christ Christian Church clans Columba composed death Diarmad Dugald Buchanan Duncan early English Erin fair Féinne Fingal Finian Finn Fionn Gael Gaelic bards Gaelic language Gaelic literature Gaelic poetry Glasgow gospel heart heroes Highland holy hymns Iain Lom Inverness Iona Ireland Irish island Islay Isles Jacobite James Macpherson John King labours land Latin Leabhar Lismore literary lived Loch Lord Macdonald Macgregor Mackay MacLauchlan MacLean Macleod Macpherson Mo Valie Veg muse native Norse o'er original Oscar Ossian Patrick period Perthshire Picts poems poet poetic popular productions prose published race religious Rob Donn Roman saints Scotland Scots Scottish shore songs spirit sweet thee thou tion translation verses volume Welsh writers written
Popular passages
Page 225 - We were now treading that illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses ; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity...
Page 188 - OSSIAN. The Poems of Ossian in the Original Gaelic. With a Literal Translation into English, and a Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Poems.
Page 60 - He never could spend the space of even one hour without study, or prayer, or writing, or some other holy occupation. So incessantly was he engaged night and day in the unwearied exercise of fasting and watching, that the burden of each of these austerities would seem beyond the power of human endurance.
Page 268 - In sooth, twas strange, this old man's verse Could call them from their marble hearse. The Harper smiled, well-pleased ; for ne'er Was flattery lost on poet's ear : A simple race ! they waste their toil For the vain tribute of a smile...
Page 225 - Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among...
Page 15 - When South Britain yielded to the power of the Romans, the unconquered nations to the north of the province were distinguished by the name of Caledonians. From their very name, it appears, that they were of those Gauls, who possessed themselves originally of Britain.
Page 168 - chartered libertine" of Scottish good company, about the end of the last century. I never saw him indeed ; but my mother's traditions were full of his wit, gallantry, and dissipation. This gay knight flourished about the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century.
Page 224 - Leland begins his history too late; the ages which deserve an exact inquiry are those times (for such there were) when Ireland was the school of the west, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature.
Page 230 - ... of Gospel truths. It consists of thirty-three stanzas or quatrains, and furnishes a Scriptural exposition of the theme he took up. The date of his death is as uncertain as that of his birth, but one authority tells us that a granddaughter of his lived in Glasgow in the second quarter of this century. The following verses remind us of the manner of Buchanan, in whom we detect traces of Mackellar's muse : — 'N uair chaidh Criosd gu...