302 
REPORT—1847. 
distinguished from its colony by the name of Great Britain *. Thm •. 
country, which was once, as C®sar tells us, the neknowlcdgeil clawtnl 
of Druidical discipline, and, as we may hence infer, of Druiriical or oMO 
language and literature, is also the princii)al seat of the modern Celtic, *1:: 
exclusively originated there. 
Some of those who honour me with their atlrntioH, may perhap* Wv 
nished to olwerve that in ])ro|)Osing the use of the expri-ssioii Anrifni .• 
Modern (.\itic, and in explaining its meaning, I liave been tacitly a»j-r . 
a fact which, of all facts Icit to the investigation of comparative C« 
philology, evidently ought to be proved first, namely the real gcmral: !'■ 
of the two languages, or, more accurately, the two ages of lauguag- ' 
we have called llic Ancient and Modern Celtic. But every one, h' * ’' 
-proof. Tlio fact that all the wonls, significative naun-s aii‘i j 
occasionally quoted by the Greek and Latin authors from tlie lanau;;- 
the severnl Celtic tribes, occur, with nearly the same spfcified mni, i 
meaning, and moreover, with their full etymological explanations, ■“ ’ 
dialects which M’c are for tills very reason justified in calling U»r r,* ‘i' 
Celtic, thin important iact, which involve^} the griiniinaticai identity* 
hj fpicstion, has fiir several centuries engaged the ituf’ 
ot the learneil. Having first been rendercrl evident by Du rr**-'''- ‘ 
afterwards more strongly insisted on by tlie school of the so-caUed O' 
manians, in whose voluminous researches it is indeed the only fart ' 
they have contributed to elucidate, it has since been laid before ihf i-' 
iti a more coinpendious and judicious form in several modern bonks, 
1 Hard's ‘Ethnographv of the Celtic R» 
and Didenbach's‘Celtica.’ ^ ‘ * 
knnuS '*■*’ full import of this identity with referrow t 
knowledge of ancient geography and nthnography, wo see at once tkit «; ’ 
thi^nuntl r Instormn. 1 he Celtic nation, whose language 
Uie mouth the niodorn Celtic tribes just enumerated, ^ ’ 
S InSt one of the uiost w idely-spread of all the nt - 
history, having at various periods coveted r:-' 
tlemLnts, and perhaps even siiimltaneausly poss^d, a «p«* of 
VsLhw. 7^rj’luriSm^^l Vi'*''** *he historic records o( th* CymfT 
and Gaelic lUer^tai TS »» very early Icgvndi preserved ho»h ta ‘ , 
a fictiou which UouhUcs* oriSa*'’^!* descent into hell and victory over d»e *• 
.„,a. 
Ni dyvu o Vrythoa 
«rwell no C’liyjwa 
rTh«.r» .IM „ . dlon. 
queror of the " ran" *^»n Cynon, lb< 
148, IM. ThechiaVrir^i.Y' Maephenon’* , 
rapresent* (.!vnan or Ciml Hold and good-htiniotin‘d.umlerwhichlbeG*al^ 
dary heroes of ■ ,i,S.- «» to recoguke in him Uib type of several 
nursery-talca of neariv whose history is a copious and tinnsiaf 
husiig. tVire Moair* L Kurope • g. Der Schmied voo 
J->ernieni Bretons, p. iyo.' ® IJeutsclie AlShrchen, Notes, Ko. 81: B-U* 
