108 



What a diffusion of the " petitio principii " is discoverable in the 

 labours of this redoubtable advocate of Irish barbarism, yet he has 

 omitted one argument considered the most powerful ! — most convinc- 

 ing ! — most unanswerable ! For Nennius has undeniably recorded 

 that " Sanctus Patritius scripsit abietoria ccclxv, et eo amplius nu- 

 mero."* Saint Patrick wrote out three hundred and sixty-five Latin 

 alphabets and more ! and there is the conclusive appeal against any 

 previous alphabet, or indeed literature in Irdand l-f By a parity of 

 reasoning, some such future antiquarian will cite, that in the nineteenth 

 century, the nations of Britain and America traversed the seas with 

 steam vessels, and rely upon the fact, as evidence, that navigation 

 was previously to that period wholly unknown to either of these nations, 

 and that the victories of the Nile, and of Trafalgar, were dreams of Bar- 

 dic imagination ! But it has been asked, if such an alphabet or rather 

 such a character existed in writing before the days of Saint Patrick, 

 where are the MSS. that should attest its existence? We shall say 

 more to this objection hereafter; for the present it will suffice to say, 

 it might as well be doubted that the Scotch had letters before Edward 

 the first, because, for obvious reasons, no records of such can now be 

 produced. 



Innes contributes one arrow more to the sheaf, because, says he, 

 certain terms of learning, such as a book, to read, to write, &c. have 

 in Irish an evident affinity to the Latin terms for the same, ergo, the 

 people of Ireland must have been recently taught, (not merely these 

 specific words,) but all the sciences that they ever so remotely refer 

 to.:J: Fortunately, Mr. James Mac-Pherson espoused the same 

 opinion, and his advocacy furnishes its own defeat in the passage, 

 "it is more natural to suppose that the Latin owes in part its origin 



• Hist. Britt. c. lix. f See post, Per. 2. Sect. 4. 1 Critical Essay, v. 2. p. 443. 



