16 



the remaining 1 2 chapters, of Proisody, in which department all 

 succeeding grammarians are indebted to him. The author con- 

 cludes his work with an appeal to his readers, equally modest and 

 affecting, in the following words : — Et haec de his pro nunc suffi- 

 ciant levidensibus. Ceterum, si in aliquo hie forsan defeci, vel excessi, 

 quasso, excuser ; k quadriginta et amplius annis inter exteros procul 

 positus a patria, patriis monumentis, et magistris, qui aliis mihi om- 

 nem possent tergere caliginem." 



O'MoUoy's Grammar is noticed by Lluyd in the preface to the 

 Irish-English Dictionary in his Archseologia, solely to point out a 

 defect, in not giving at large all the inflections of the declinable 

 parts of speech and the rules of Syntax. Notwithstanding these im- 

 portant omissions, Lluyd's opinion of its real value is manifest from 

 his giving it a place, though not without enlargement, in his 

 Archaeologia, as we shall shew in noticing the grammar contained 

 in that great work. O'Molloy uses the modern Irish Alphabet 



LLUYD's IRISH GRAMMAR,— Oxford 1707. 



The next grammar of our language which appeared was that 

 of Lluyd, just alluded to, contained in his Archaeologia Britan. 

 nica, and prefixed to his Irish-English Dictionary.*^ It is chiefly 

 extracted from O'MolIoy's and from another iu manuscript, written 

 by an anonymous author at Lovain in the year 1669. — It contains se- 

 ven chapters. The first treats of the letters — the second of the quan- 

 tity of syllables and parts of speech. The latter he reckons seven, 

 viz, " Article, Noun, Preposition, Verb, Adverb, Conjunction, Pro- 

 noun," stating at the same time that the more ancient Grammarians 



• This learned work is so well known to every scholar, that it is deemed unnecesMiy ta 

 enter into anj description of it here. 



