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———584 NOTES.matter, that the Irish were acquainted with letters at leasttwenty years before the arrival of St. Patrick. The man whocan thus deliberately deny and assert one and the same thing, asit thwarts or favours his purpose, is certainly very ill qualifiedfor a historian.Mr. Innes, with all his foibles^ is a modest and meritoriouswriter. Though he sometimes colours hard, he never absolutelyviolates truth. Willing to rate St, Patrick's merits as high dspossible, he makes him the father of Irish letters. The first argumenthe adduces (v. 2. p. 456.) is that the Gaelic (Irish)•words Litir, a letter Leahhar, a book Leagham, to readScriobham^ to write, &c. are derived from the Roman Litera,Liber, Lego, Scribo, &c. and hence infers that Letters, BooksyBeading and Writing, were borrowed from the Romans, andintroduced by St. Patrick. To give this argument its fullweight, I shall here add a short synopsis of the Sanscrit, Celtic,and Roman languages.Celtic.