14 



been. Its best part wrapped up in mouldering Manuscripts, long hid- 

 den in ruins and the cabins of the poor at home, or abroad scattered 

 over the kingdoms of Europe. A language, in fine, less indebted to 

 the Printer's art and the Critic's pen, than that of any other civil- 

 ized country on Earth. We shall now see how far these assertions 

 are borne out by facts, and first as to Grammar. 



There are many grammatical treatises extant in MS. compiled 

 long before the invention of Printing ; some of which are of con- 

 siderable antiquity, but have never been benefitted, by that great dis- 

 covery. The oldest of these, and perhaps the most ancient gram- 

 matical treatise extant of any language is the — 



OR 



« PRIMER OF THE BARDS" 



written by Feirceirtne the Poet, by some called Forchern, about 

 the period of the Incarnation of our Redeemer, and in the reign of 

 Conor Mac Nessa, monarch of Ireland. This treatise was after- 

 wards revised and enlarged by Cinfaela na Foghlaime — *' Cinfaela 

 the learned," in the seventh century. Of it there are copies pre- 

 served in the Books of Leacan and Baliimote, in the possession of 

 the Royal Irish Academy, which, so far as I had an opportunity 

 of comparing, appear to me to agree. A more ancient copy than 

 either, but not so copious, written on vellum iu the twelfth century, 

 is in the collection of Mr. Hardiman. This latter appears to me 

 to be the genuine work of Cinfaela. There is in the same col- 

 lection a much more modern transcript than either of the fore- 

 going, and more diffuse, as containing tlie additions of subse- 

 quent grammarians. This, and all the other ancient grammars. 



