COINNEACH ODHAR. 297 



to know it. Johnson, in his Life of Dryden, referring to the 

 latter's version of the jiEneid, &o., has a paragraph which is worth 

 quoting in this connection : — " When languages are formed upon 

 different principles, it is impossible that the same modes of expres- 

 sion should always be elegant in both. While they run on 

 together, the closest translation may be considered the best ; but 

 when they divaricate, each must take its natural course. Where 

 correspondence cannot be obtained, it is necessary to be content 

 with something equivalent. ' Translation, therefore,' says Dryden, 

 ' is not so loose as paraphrase, nor so close as metaphrase.' " With 

 all this we entirely concur, more especially when such widely 

 different languages as the English and Gaelic have to be dealt with. 

 We do not know that Professor Blackie ever read the paragraph 

 quoted, or, even if he did read it, that he now remembers it ; but 

 to his translations from the Gaelic, to so much of them, at all 

 events, as were submitted to our notice, Dryden's dictum is entirely 

 applicable — they are not so loose as paraphrase, nor so close as 

 metaphrase. They strike a golden mean very difficult of attain- 

 ment in such efforts ; and on the appearance of the volume itself, 

 we shall be disappointed if nine-tenths at least of the many readers 

 it is sure to command do not entirely agree with us. But nous 

 verrons, if we live we shall see. 



The Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness for 1873-4 

 and 1874-5, have reached us. The Secretary's paper on " Coinneach 

 Odhar," the Brahan seer, is most interesting, containing as it does 

 the best account that we have met with of that uncanny Eoss-shire 

 worthy. That he was an impostor, and a vulgar impostor too, 

 there can be no doubt ; but the story of a man — clever, shrewd 

 rascal as he was — in whom the people so thoroughly believed, is worth 

 the telling, and Mr. Mackenzie tells it very well. He should, we 

 think, give us, if possible, a second paper, containing the many other 

 wonderful vaticinations attributed to his hero, who seems to have 



