HISTORY
CELTIC LANGUAGE.
CHAPTER I.
" Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of
their fathers : for we are but of yesterday." — Job viii. 8.
OPINIONS OF EMINEXT PHILOLOGISTS RELATIVE TO THE
ANTIQUITY ANT) CONSEQUENT IMPORTANCE OF THE
CELTIC LANGUAGE COMMENT THEREON BY THE
AUTHOR THE BRITISH AND THE CELTIC COMPARED,
&C.
The history of language is the history of thought
— a picture of the gradual development of mind —
human nature reflected as in a mirror ; and as such
it forms an exalted science. It carries us back to
the infancy of mankind — makes present and past
ages meet; and, whilst Truth, in all her divine
harmony, reveals herself to the admiring student,
the mind luxuriates in lofty thought — the finer sen-
sibihties of the soul are brought into play — the
heart is necessarilv beinsr enlarged and liberalized