Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

So that this poet, by prifci, muft mean the ancients before his time. Now, the first Christian bishop that went to Ireland, was Palladius, who did not remain there above one year, when Patrick was fent to fucceed him, in the year 425; or, as another copy of a book, faid to be wrote by him, intitled, de Gaudiis Electorum, &c. has it, in 430, which makes fifty-one years before the Irish had any notion of Christianity. Sure, fuch an epithet as Insula Sacra must have been beftowed upon it, by the ancients, before Avienus, for fome laudable reafon; and points out very naturally, that it was famous for fome peculiar endowments of its inhabitants in very ancient times.

LET us now take fome notice of the order, names and powers of fome of the alphabets of Europe.

THE ancient Irish, Scythian or Pelafgian letters, being the first column in the table, are there in their original order, the names of which I fhall repeat here, to prevent fome trouble to the reader in turning to it; and fhail put the common Roman letters in their places; which run thus:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THIS was the ancient order, and continued fo to be, till Chriftianity was thoroughly propagated in Ireland. This order was altered, when the language began to be

mixed in Grecce, as I have hinted it already; and this was one of the changes mentioned by Herodotus; and the additional, or fecondary letters, another. Hence the Greek order is called alpha-bet, from the two first letters; and the Roman, ab-ce-darium, from the a, b, c, d; but the title of the Irish order is beth, luis, nion, from the b, l, n; and they also call it by another name, bebeloth, importing the fame thing, which is teftified by many of the most ancient Irish authors, especially in the Book of Lecane, from which the author of Ogygia has taken it: this book was compiled by the ancestors of the family of the MacFirbies, which treated of feveral fubjects, chiefly of the General History and Antiquities of Ireland; and was much confulted by Arch-bishop Usher, Mr. O Flaherty, and Mr. Lynch: there is a copy of it carefully preferved in the king's library at Paris, which the author of the Dissertations on the Ancient Hiftory of Ireland thought was the only copy; but there appears another among the Irish manufcripts, mentioned in the catalogue of the Bodleian Manufcripts, in Bishop Uber's collection in Trinity-college library, Dublin, N° 257, page 22, where there is also another, called the Book of Ballymore, one part of which is a history of the wars of Troy, in that ancient language.

THE Greeks, as foon as they had increafed their number of letters, feem to have given them the order and names, nearly, of the Hebrew aleph-beth; and the Latins, when they alfo had changed their old Pelafgic, took in the Secondary letters of the Greeks, of which, fays Pliny, we acknowledge the power in our language. This was brought about firft in Greece, and afterwards, by the in

curfions

curfions of the Greeks upon the old inhabitants in Italy, as I have fhewn it before, by the Latins, in what regards the number, but not the names, of the letters.

Bur the Irish, being long inhabitants of their fafe retreat, unmixed with other people, exercifing their own system of laws and government, encouraging their filids, poets, and other learned men, in their particular respective profeffions, which were intailed upon them and their defcendants, from one generation to another, all written in their own pure language, still preserved the ancient order, number and names of their beth, luis, nion, until St. Patrick had accomplished the converfion of the kingdom to the Christian faith, and abolished the pagan, druidical worship: till then then they were utterly unacquainted with the Latin letters, although these were the offspring of their own, among the Umbrians, and other Pelafgians, in Italy, long before; but St. Patrick, eager to haften the propagation of the Gospels among the people, endeavoured, by every means he could devife, to introduce the Latin ab-cedarium, in order to have a sufficient number of copies made for that purpose: yet it appears, that the Irish amanuenses wrote out the Latin Gospels in their own characters, of which I have feen feveral copies, and very finely executed. However, they were obliged, in writing the Latin language, to take in the fecondary letters, which their own feventeen were not fufficient for, and which that language could not do without: and it is very remarkable, that in all the manuscripts of their own tongue, not an additional letter can be found to the primary seventeen. But I find, in some printed books in that language, for example, in

Bishop

Bifhip Bedel's Irish Bible and New Testament, the aspirate b is taken in; this made fome modern grammarians count eighteen letters in the Irish alphabet, and follow the order of the Latin ab-cedar, as far as their letters go; but they never changed their characters yet, nor is it likely they ever will.

THUS, we fee the Irish language was always expreffed by feventeen letters only, having no need of any fecondary ones, not even of the b; for as to this aspirate, though the language always has it in use, by a means peculiar to itself, yet they have no occafion to bring it in among the number of the characters proper to it; nor was it anciently written at all: because its power was always fupplied by a point concomitant to the letter, that was to be afpirated; and befides, feveral of the letters are naturally afpirated in course, of which we shall give some account, a little further on.

THE only author of any consequence, besides Innes, mentioned in the preface, who denies the Irish to have had the use of letters, or indeed any learning at all, is Bollardus: he fays, before Chriftianity they were illiterate, and that St. Patrick introduced the use of letters among them. But this appears to be a weak affertion, from what I have all along faid; however, a word or two more may not be amifs here if they had them first from that faint, would they have deviated from the forms of the letters? would they have altered the order? would they not rather have continued them as they received them, or would they have funk seven letters? for, in every country, they have rather increased, than diminished, the number of letters, except

thofe

[ocr errors]

thofe of the Hebrew and Irish, which are in ftatu quo to this very day. One of his reafons is, that, "because the "ancient Germans had not the ufe of letters, the Irish

were in the fame ftate." Here he is loft, in his first propofition; the Germans never were without letters, for they had them from their anceftors, the Scythians, in continual fucceffion: but if they had not, does it follow, that Ireland fhould be an illiterate kingdom? Another of his reafons is, that it is known the faint wrote out the Latin alphabet for them that were his converts; and concludes, that therefore they knew no letters before. But this argument is as foolifh as the former: for Colgan, his author, who tells us that he gave them the Latin alphabet, fays also, that the great poet, Dubtach, was master to Fiach (who received the faint's alphabet) and sent him, before that, into Connaught, to prefent fome of his poems to the princes of that country, written in his own language and characters: but if this unguarded author had confidered the reason of Patrick's endeavouring to promote the Latin letters among them, he would hardly have ventured to affert fo extraordinary an opinion.

I WILL, however, fhew the reafon of it here, in order to defeat the prejudices that mere readers may run into about it. When St. Patrick had made a number of profelytes, there was a neceffity to have the priesthood increased; for the few who accompanied him, upon this occafion, could not be fufficient to ftem the torrent of oppofition from the pagan priests, and the contumacy of the common people, every where. It was, therefore, highly expedient to ordain many priests; and the fooner they were

prepared

« AnteriorContinuar »