not always taken care enough to make it as easy to skip the etymological passages as the general reader could wish, at any rate if publishers and reviewers do not grossly exaggerate the requirements of his comfort. With regard to comparisons extending beyond the Celtic group itself, most assistance has been derived from the ancient literature of Scandinavia. From one branch of the Aryan family, the Slavonic, I have been almost wholly unable to draw any help, as I found the existing works on the subject of old Slavonic religion and mythology either too antiquated or too brief to consult with advantage. This I regret all the more, as I do not believe that materials are wanting to illustrate the religious and mythic aspect of Slavonic history.
After these remarks, it is needless to say that I have not attempted to discuss the early fortunes of Christianity among the Celts. That is a large subject worthy of being treated in a separate series of lectures by some one well versed in the mass of old literature devoted to the lives of the saints of Erinn and both Britains. Of course it is not pretended that anything connected with the history of religion among the Celts—or among the Teutons, if it comes to that—could vie in popularity with the pedigree of the last idol unearthed in the East, or even with the discovery of a new way of spelling Nebuchadnezzar's name. Still the Celtic field of research has a rapidly growing interest for scholars, who now regard it as one in which the investigator's labours are most certain to be crowned with brilliant results. 'The great attraction of Celtic philology consists in the very fact that every haul of the net, without exception, brings in a rich spoil.' So wrote a distinguished German scholar the other day; and his words are true of Celtic philology in that wider sense of the term which would embrace not only the study of Celtic speech, but also of Celtic archæology and history, of Celtic religion and folk-lore, of Celtic myth and saga.
