But we Gaels of Scotland and Ireland suffer peculiar loss and inconvenience above any other part of the world, in not having our literature and language printed, as other tribes of men have: And we suffer a greater than all other losses, in not having the Holy Bible printed in the Gaelic, as it is printed in Latin, English, and many other tongues. And besides, we have never had, in print, the history of antiquity, or of our ancestors, although a certain portion of the literature of the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland exists in manuscripts, in the possession of Bards and Teachers, and their Patrons.
Great is the labour of writing by the hand, in comparison of printing, which shortens, and speedily finishes whatever is done by it, however great. And great is the blindness and sinful darkness, and ignorance and perverseness of those who teach, and write and compose in Gaelic, in exhibiting much more attention, and showing more anxiety to preserve the vain, extravagant, false, and worldly histories of the Tuath-de-Danans and Milesians, and of the heroes of [1]Fingal, the son of Cumhail, of the Fingalians, and of many others, which I shall not here mention nor name, nor attempt to examine; for the purpose of obtaining the vain rewards of the world for themselves, than they display to write, and to teach, and to compose the sincere words of God, and the perfect
- ↑ Often called Finn, or Fionn, according to the verse or taste of the author.
