1891-9 2.] CELTIC PROSODY. By 
ws in artubus and us in canentebus. Many scholars who are conversant 
with the writings of St. Augustine and with the very important contribu- 
tion which he made to Patristic Theology, are in all likelihood not aware 
that he virtually effected a revolution in Latin poetry. Of his Psalmus 
Abecedarius, Zeuss affirms that, as if it were to open a new country and 
to announce a new age, it presents a novel form of poetry, inasmuch as 
in it metre and every calculation of tune are neglected and attention is 
paid to nothing save the settled number of syllables along with corres- 
pondence. Such are the circumstances which constitute the form of Celtic 
poetry, ¢.g.: i 
Bonos in vasa miserunt, reliquos malos in mare, 
Here there is a manifest departure from the laws of Latin scansion, while 
the peculiarites of Celtic poetry are easily discernible. J7/eserunt malos 
mare begin with the same consonant, donxos reliquos matlos,end in os. 
The last syllable of the Psalmus Abecedarius invariably ends in e. 
Secundinus, a relative of St. Patrick, adopted the model which was fur- 
nished by the Psalm of Augustine, and SSuMIE DE 38 very many Latin 
verses in the same manner, ¢. ¢.- 
Benchuir, bona, regula, recta atque divina, 
Stricta, sancta, sedula, summa, justa ac mira. 
In the first verse that has been cited, the first two words begin with 
the same letter ; the third and fourth words also begin with the same letter, 
and the second, third, fourth and sixth words terminate in a. The first 
four words of the second verse begin with s. Those words, along 
with justa and mzra,end ina. The last two syllables of the first Hemis- 
tich in each verse terminate in za (regula sedula); there is a correspon- 
dence between the last syllable of each verse, and a¢gue in the first verse 
and ac in the second verse begin with a. 
Davies thus writes (p. 215), “ The structure of ancient British and Irish 
being one and the same, I cannot persuade myself that the Bards of 
either country deserted their own established mode to imitate that of the 
other. On the contrary I infer that they had equally retained the same 
mode from some remote age in which their ancestors had been better 
connected.” As the result of his laborious investigation of the oldest 
specimens of Celtic poetry that are extant, Zeuss avers that the universal 
construction of poetic discourse was the same among the two divisions 
which he makes of the Celtic race. 
Apud Hibernos vetustos et Cambros. 
The first Irish Grammar that was printed was that of the Rev. Francis 
O’Molloy. It was written in Latin and was published in 1677. Lhuyd 
