The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Nezu Books.
NEW BOOKS.
KELIQULE CELTIC.!-: : Texts, Papers, and Stcdie.s in Gaelic
Literature and Philology, left by the late Rev. Alexander
Cameron, LL.D. Edited by Alexander Macbain, M.A., and Rev. John
Kennedy. Vol. L, OssiANiCA, with Memoir of Dr Cameron. Inverness:
" Northern Chronicle " Office. 1892.
Dr Cameron was undoubtedly the ablest and most
learned Gaelic scholar of his time. He knew the literature
and philology of the Gaelic language as no other man did
Flis published works and the Reliquice Celticce, the first
volume of which is before us, do not do justice to the
breadth or accuracy of his scholarship. The philological
articles in the Gael (1872-4) and the Scottish Celtic Review
represent the most of the work published by him in his
lifetime, while these two volumes of Reliqiiice only give the
raw materials of his study for the most part. The structure
that should be reared from these materials—the historical
Gaelic grammar, the etymological Gaelic dictionary, the
editions of old Gaelic texts with notes and translations, and
the disquisitions on Gaelic philology— ^has not gone further
than the mere foundations. Dr Cameron's papers present
some scattered notes on Gaelic philology and grammar,
and the beginnings of an etymological dictionary. There
are abundant transcripts of old texts, but i^w translations
and fewer notes. Judging by the first volume, we think
the editors are carrying on their work with the greatest
judgment. They accurately reproduce Dr Cameron's
texts, and they complete any broken lines or passages that
were left blank in their originals ; but they do not feel
themselves justified in doing more than this; they allow
the student and the general reader to be their own commentators
and translators.
Dr Cameron was born in 1827, the son of a cottarcrofter
in Badenoch. In his schooldays, he attended
school only during the winter half-year, for in summer he