AN GAOḊAL.
607
also a general and synoptical view of such a highly
interesting grammatical and phonetical subject as
aspiration and eclipsis evidently must be, to em¬
brace the same with one glance, and have it prop¬
erly and well-arranged, and indeed in your mind.
In conclusion, I wish to make a few remarks as
to the fact that, indeed, no Irishman can possibly
have any cause or reason to feel ashamed of his
country, his origin or nationality. The Irish that
come to this happy land — to free America — may be
poor, indeed, and often wholly destitute, on their
arrival on this side of the ocean; they may have to
endure, for a while at least, the hardships of servi¬
tude and exhausting labor, of many sore privations
and a painful struggle for a mere existence, yet so
far as my personal observation extends, all this
will be, nearly in every case, only transient and
temporary. They will toil, no doubt; but they
will toil successfully and obtain (generally, and not
to say, almost invariably), pleasant, comfortable
homes of their own, a peacable, contented, happy
life, a respectable and respected social position, and
become, not unfrequently, even wealthy, rise to
political eminence, and be a blessing to themselves
to their families and to their adopted country. I
could mention many names to substantiate what I
say and make good my assertions, but will for va¬
rious reasons, not do so at this time. What I am
going to say in the following lines, are by no mean
imaginary statements, or false representations, but
the almost literal report taken from some of the
best, and for their sober minded veracity, univer¬
sally respected authorities, historical, geographical
standard works, public documents, official papers,
accredited journal articles and essays, as well as
reliable private communications and letters from
well-informed friends and correspondents. Let, me
then in the first place, state that the Celtic langua¬
ges constituted once a far extending family of re¬
lated tongues, which about two thousand years
ago, actually covered a larger ground than Latin,
Greek and German combined. There have been
published very many valuable works to aid the
learner in the study of these languages, but espec¬
ially in acquiring a fair and thorough knowledge of
Irish. An Irish grammar, it is asserted, was al¬
ready attempted by Amergin Cinfeala, who died in
687 A. D. Then I may mention that of Thadeus
Dowling: another grammar was written by Mat¬
thias de Rentsi: (born 1577 A. D.( The same
wrote also an Irish dictionary, and a Chronicle.
Valancey's Grammar was published at Dublin,
1773, the second edition 1782. Then we have that
of Dr. William Neilson published at Dublin, 1808
that of Paul O'Brien (professor at Maynooth,)
which appeared in Dublin one year later than
Neilson's. Other grammars are by Halliday, Mc¬
Curtin, Burke, Owen Connellan, Joyce, O'Molloy,
etc., etc., besides that ot the great standard gram¬
marian, O'Donovan: The most complete gram¬
matical work on the older forms of Irish, in their
connection with the other Celtic tongues is the
"Grammatica Celtica," by Zeuss. The oldest
printed dictionary is that of O'Cleary. It bears the
title "Senasan nuadh no focloir d foclaibh crua¬
idh," and appeared in Louvain, 1643. Two Irish
dictionaries were published in Paris, — that of Mc¬
Curtin (with grammar), in 1732, that of John O
Bryan, in 1768. Another (with a grammar) ap¬
peared in Dublin in 1822. It is by O'Reilly and
contains 50,000 words. Many important works
have been issued under the auspices of the Royal
Irish Academy and the Irish Archeological and
Celtic Societys Celtic phillolgy has nowadays, att-
the same dignity and degree of respect, and reciev¬
ed the same serious consideration as the Sanskrit
studies and the critical and comparative treat¬
ment of the Indo-European languages. Among
the prominent scholars and successful workers in
the domain of Celtic erudition, we may mention
very many names (from bygone times to the pres¬
ent, — such as Edward Lhuyd, O'Connor, Edwards,
Marcel, Pictit, O'Curry, Strokes, Bopp, Gluck,
Stark, Gaidoz, Jubainville, Brandez, Contzen,
Meyer, Bacmeister. Cenac-Moncant, Grimm, Ell¬
issen, Georgiewski, Leo, Rees, Reeve, Monin, Nor¬
ris, Sparscheck, Roussillon, Price, Nigra, O'Sulli¬
van, Poste, Rhys, Owen, Pughe, Yeatman, Row¬
land, Legonidec, De Villemarque. Ilgant, Le
Brigant, Jager, etc., etc. There appear also, from
time to time, many highly interesting and instruct¬
ive Essays and Dissertations, on special points of,
Celtic philology; as, for instance, Bapke, W.,
on the Irish "s-preterit (in German), Bremen, 1880
Windisch, the "p" in the Celtic languages (like¬
wise in German), 1876; and many other such mon¬
ographs of particular importance, which no Irish
scholar should neglect to study, or allow to pass
without notice. Also a valuable periodical is pub¬
lished in Europe, regulularly, which is exclusively
devoted to the philological study of the Celtic lan¬
guages: it is the "Revue Celtique," which has been
in existence since 1870, and is ably conducted by
Prof. H. Gaidoz. Professorships of the Irish lan¬
guage exist in Trinity College Dublin, in the
Queen's College at Belfast, in that of Cork, of Gal¬
way, in the College of Maynooth, and the Catholic
University of Ireland. A professorship of Celtic
also exists in Paris at the College de France a chair
which is very ably filled by Prof. Jubainville.
Also Prof. Gaidoz lectures in Paris on the Celtic
languages and literature. So does Mr. Rhys in
Oxford (since 1876), and Prof. Windisch formerly
of Strasburg, now in Leipzig (since 1875). A con¬
siderable advantage, moreover, can be gained, if
students of Irish, and of the Celtic languages gen¬
erally, would make themselves, at the same time,
acquainted with Sanskrit and Indo-European
philology, and bestow some attention on phonology,
