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572 KOTES.their power to consign them to utter oblivion.All that is there,fore wanting, as Toland justly remarks, is a skilful hand, toseparate the dross from the ore.Note XXV.—Page 95.The use of letters has been very antient in Ireland,—This pointhas been most strenuously controverted.The antiquity of theuse of letters among the Celts stands on incontroTertible evidence;but as I wish the reader to have perused the History ofAharis^ before I enter into this discussion, I shall conclude mynotes with two short dissertations, in the first of which I shallprove that the use of letters among the Celtic tribes is muchmore early than is generally allowed, and in the second endeavourto account for the great number, and high antiquity of theIrish manuscripts.Note XXVI.—Page 102 & 103.Mr. Toland here gives an enumeration of Druids which couldhave been no where found but in the Irish manuscripts. Indeedit is his intimate acquaintance with these manuscripts, and theCeltic language, that constitutes the peculiar excellence of the"work. Dr. Smith, in his Histori) of the Druids^ (page 11) caafind no authority tliat the Druids had wives, except in this passageof Toland, which he quotes. In quoting it he uses that disingenuitywhich characterises his whole conduct to Toland, andquotes his own poem of Dargo Macdruibhcil first, and then Toland,This Dargo Macdruihheil is d Gaelic poem which the Dr.wrote down from oral recitation, and orthographized, as he thoughtfit. He translates it Dargo the son of the Druid of Beit. Any mnn«f candour will be cautious of quoting one of his own works, tosupport another of them, particularly, as from the silence ofOssian respecting the Druids, there is more than reason to sus,pect, that this as well as some other circumstances have beenmodelled to supply the defect.That the Dr. could net find oneDruid in Scotland married or unmarried, till he modelled a sir^