in Britanny, a province of France. He affirms, that the Celtic language still exists, and is spoken by two millions of people in lower Britanny, and in the principality of Wales, and in Cornwall, without including the Highlands of Scotland and Ireland, where the people also speak a dialect of the Celtic called the Gaelic, which, he observes, was the language of that illustrious bard Ossian, the Homer of the Caledonians. These precious words, Monsieur Cambry further observes, will illustrate and re-establish, in the most positive and wonderful manner, a number of passages in ancient history, and will, at the same time, give us a more perfect knowledge of the antiquities, origin, customs, and monuments of different nations. It may be admitted, that M. Cambry is correct in his statement, but while this leads us to reflect on the causes of the decline of the Celtic language, for the last 1500 years, it gives rise to the gratifying idea, that, in the course of the present century, our national language will probably be the vernacular tongue of numbers nearly equal to the present population of Europe. For when we contemplate our vast political and commercial relations with America, the East and West Indies, and other parts of the world, it may be fairly calculated that, before the lapse of the present century, no less than 150 millions of people, in both hemispheres, will speak the English language, subject however to various fluctuations and different dialects, in proportion to the distance of one country or tribe from another. This is by no means an exaggerated computation, when we separately consider the rapid progress of population in the United States of America, where during the last twenty-five years of the eighteenth century, it was more than doubled; viz. from 2,486,000 in the year 1774, to 5,214,800 in the year 1800. Consequently in the same ratio the population of the United States of America will be increased to upwards of eighty millions at the end of the present century. It is well known, that the letters of the ancient Gaelic and Irish alphabet had a resemblance to the ancient Greek, and in fact Mr. Macpherson had it at one time in contemplation to publish the original of Ossian in Greek characters, or in those in which the MSS. were supposed to have been first written. Mr. Astle, in his Origin and Progress of Writing, has given a series of Gaulish or Celtic characters, which somewhat resemble those of Greece. They were taken from the monumental inscriptions of Gordian, the messenger of the Gauls, who suffered martyrdom, with all his family, in the third century. Whether the ancient Celtic character was derived from the Greek, or the Greek from the Celtic, we have no positive proofs, and the question is still problematical: yet Mr. Astle is inclined to believe the former. The ancient Spaniards used also letters nearly Greek, before their intercourse with the Romans. "It is singular. as observed by Mr. Astle, and no less true, that the Roman characters were generally used in England from the coming of William I. and * Origin and Progress of Writing, p. 57. 2d Edit. that the Saxon characters were entirely disused in the very beginning of the twelfth century; but the Irish and Scots preserved the ancient forms of their characters till the end of the sixteenth century.' * It is a fact well known to every Oriental scholar, that the different transcripts of Persian MSS. of the heroic poems of Ferdusi, the sublime poems of Khakani, the elegant odes of Hafiz, and the works of Nizami, and others, also the ancient popular tales called Bakht-yar-nameh, differ essentially from each other; for several copies, in passing through the hands of ignorant or conceited transcribers, have suffered a considerable debasement of the original text. In the Persian popular tales of a very remote period, it is curious to remark, that all the names of the persons introduced are, like Ossian's, characteristic compounds, formed by two nouns, the one qualifying the other, and governing it in gender. Thus the name of Bakht-yar is derived from bakht, fortune, and yar, friend, and may be translated "fortune's friend." Sepeh-salar, a proper name also, signifies a general, or "leader of an army." Various other instances might be cited, in the Arabic and Persian literature, as characteristic compounds; to prove that in very remote periods, and among nations speaking different dialects, and separated from each other at the extremities of the globe, similar modes of composition, as well as manners and customs to The MSS. written in the northern parts of Scotland and in Ireland, between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, noticed by Mr. Astle, and of which he has given engraved fac-similes, are in similar characters to the Saxon. those ascribed to the æra of Ossian prevailed. Let us examine a few of Ossian's characters, and we shall find a striking analogy. Thus Duchomar signifies a "black well made man." Fergus, or Ferguth, "the man of the word." "Where is that cloud in war, Duchomar ?" "Hast thou left me, O Fergus, in the day of the storm?" Trenmore signifies " tall and mighty:" Cean daona, head of the people: Cormar, expert at sea: Curaoch, the madness of battle; and a variety of other names. Were a laudable spirit of research and inquiry to be encouraged and excited among the learned, in order to trace and compare the affinity of the Celtic roots, with those in the Oriental and other languages, there might be reason to hope we should, at no distant period, see the venerable remains of Celtic literature made an object of classical learning under professors at our Universities. Then we might expect, that the sublime poems of the Caledonian bard would be duly and universally appreciated, and that a grammatical knowledge of the original language would consequently become a desideratum with the student, who would be actuated by stronger motives to acquire it, than those which stimulate many to learn Spanish, for the sake of merely relishing the humourous adventures of Don Quixotte in the original.* * Several gentleman born and educated in England have recently made the Gaelic language an object of study, under good masters; William Rose, Esq. has, we are informed, by application, acquired a competent knowledge of the language; and Mr. J. A. M'Arthur, of Trinity College, Cambridge, and others we could name, have begun to study the Gaelic with assiduity. |