11 



nifications which " never entered into the brains" of the ancient wri- 

 ters, they have reason to be deterred from studying our language, and 

 to despair of ever attaining a knowledge of it. But it becomes ne- 

 cessary to know from whom these charges originate, in order that 

 they should be duly appreciated. Suppose, then, persons who 

 acquired a reading knowledge of the Irish language, becom- 

 ing surprized at their sudden acquisition, and without any other 

 possible claim to notice, assuming airs of lettered importance. At 

 length, venturing to pass criticisms on the works of the truly learned, 

 they single out casual inadvertencies for observation, thereby hoping 

 to acquire the character of scholars and critics. With those inca- 

 pable of judging, the experiment proved successful ; and success and 

 impunity, as they usually do, emboldened fresh attempts. Suppose 

 again the same persons to assume as their own, the unpublished 

 labours of others, in order to raise a literary reputation at the ex- 

 pence of the dead. But this is not all. Pedants of this class have 

 inflicted more serious injuries on the cause of Irish Literature. They 

 have, by the means already detailed, for the vain purpose of being 

 considered as the only oracles of our language, induced very general 

 but erroneous ideas of its abstruseness. This has had the effect of 

 preventing it from being more universally studied. To counteract, if 

 possible, so serious an evil, I must again repeat, that from the simple 

 and regular structure of our language, a knowledge of it can be 

 more easily and expeditiously acquired than that of most other lan- 

 guages. No credence, therefore,should be given to such misrepresenta- 

 tions, and no one should be deterred from prosecuting its study. I could 



vertence which might have easily occurred to any one in the hurry of transcription. The erroneous 

 orthography of c; jjro rectius Ciijjjm is its only error, unless the omission of an aspiration 

 over the C, and the duplication of j\ in the word " CA/ifidb'' might be considered, by our critic, 

 as ungrammatical. So much for the candor of this class of literary pioneers. " Ex uno disce 

 omnes." 



c 2 



