133 



Literally : 



" Put welcome upon the generous land of the Fionns, 

 Upon the rough territories, and the Inch-galls," (viz. Hebrides.) 



. . ** .'** ,■ -.-.-.., 



In " the generous land of Fingal's heroes," every unprejudiced 

 mind will instantly recognize Ireland, in which country the author 

 must have felt a natural wish for his book to become popular. That 

 this was his meaning, might be reasonably concluded from the cha- 

 racteristic manner in which it is described ; but the repetition of the 

 preposition ar upon, if we mistake not, is decisive. Had the gene- 

 rous land of Fingal's heroes, and the rough territories of the High- 

 lands, been the same, would not the insertion of ar between them 

 have been not only superfluous, but destructive of their intended 

 identity? . .j 



To the Scottish authorities in favour of his hypothesis. Sir John 

 adds that of Colgan, an Irish author of great learning and research ; 

 for Colgan, in a note, says of Fingal, (or Finnius, flius Cubhalli,) 

 > f that he was much celebrated in poems and tales inter suos, "by which 

 he must necessarily mean that he belonged to Scotland, and not to 

 Ireland, as in this case he would have written inter nostrates" 

 Pro-di-gi-ous ! A common reader would suppose that by sicos, his 

 own, the author meant Finn's own people, his contemporaries; milites 

 or amicos, being the substantive understood, and that he had no in- 

 tention whatever to designate him as a foreigner. If he were so, 

 why introduce him at all rather than Galgacus, or any other stran- 

 ger? What should we think of the critic, who would attempt to prove 

 that our Saviour was not a native of Judea, because the apostle John 

 has written, that "he came to his own, and his own (6t tcTtot) received 

 him not ?" According to our learned critic's rule, had John been 

 able to claim Christ as his compatriot, he would have written, not 

 bi Xdioi but rJi-iBdaTTOi ! 



