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The Celtic magazine. A monthly periodical devoted to the literature ...

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Ireland,THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. 127LI TEE A TUBE.THE "ARYAN ORIGIN OF THE CELTIC RACE AND LANGUAGE."<strong>The</strong> above is <strong>the</strong> title on <strong>the</strong> outside of a liook by <strong>the</strong> Rev. CanonBourke, president of St Jarlath's College, Tuam, Ireland. <strong>The</strong> book is inevery resj^iect a -wonderful and interesting one <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> Celt, at home amiabroad, whe<strong>the</strong>r he be Scotch or Irish. Time was when <strong>the</strong> ScottishCelt looked -with great suspicion on his Irish cousin, while <strong>the</strong> Irishmanhad no great love for his Scottish neighbour. Even yet a good deal ofthis feeling prevails, particularly among <strong>the</strong> uneducated.Our own experience, however, has been that <strong>the</strong> Irisli Celt is notbehind <strong>the</strong> Scotch Gael in generosity and all <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r virtues which are<strong>the</strong> special characteristics of <strong>the</strong> race. <strong>The</strong> book before us is in severalrespects calculated <strong>to</strong> streng<strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> friendship Avhich is bemg rapidlyformed, and which ought <strong>to</strong> subsist among <strong>the</strong> intelligent of each of <strong>the</strong>two great branches of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Celtic</strong> family— Scotch and Irish. Frequentreferences of an appreciating and commendable kind are made in this work<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> labours of Scotchmen in <strong>the</strong> field of <strong>Celtic</strong> <strong>literature</strong>. CanonBourke, like a true-hearted son of. -with that magnanimitycharacteristic of <strong>the</strong> race, holds out his right hand <strong>to</strong> every Scottishscholar in <strong>the</strong> field of <strong>Celtic</strong> or Keltic research, and says in effect— Ciamar a tha thu ? Buaidh giUn rohh air d'obair !Although <strong>the</strong> " Aryan Origin of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Celtic</strong> Eaces and Language " isall <strong>the</strong> title on <strong>the</strong> cover, inside <strong>the</strong> book, <strong>the</strong> title is much more comprehensive,consisting, as it does, al<strong>to</strong>ge<strong>the</strong>r of 27 lines. But even this laro-eand comprehensive title-page does not give anything like an adequate ideaof <strong>the</strong> extent and variety of <strong>the</strong> contents of <strong>the</strong> book. Taking it up -with<strong>the</strong> expectation of finding a learned treatise on <strong>the</strong> Aryan origin of <strong>the</strong><strong>Celtic</strong> race and <strong>Celtic</strong> languages one wiU be disappointed ; but no one willbe disappointed with <strong>the</strong> work as a Avhole, for though its contents do notbear throughout on <strong>the</strong> above subject, <strong>the</strong>y are all thorouglrly <strong>Celtic</strong> ; andas a collection of <strong>Celtic</strong> gleanings, will well repay a perusal. It is, indeed,a sort of <strong>Celtic</strong> reposi<strong>to</strong>ry—<strong>the</strong> -writer's <strong>Celtic</strong> reading for many yearsbeing apparently thro-mi in<strong>to</strong> a crucible, and having undergone a certainprocess <strong>the</strong>re, are forged out in<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> handsome and bulky volume beforeus. It has, however, all <strong>the</strong> appearance of having been very hastily ootup. Indeed, in <strong>the</strong> preface, which is dated, " Feast of <strong>the</strong> Nativitv of <strong>the</strong>B.V.M., 1875," we are <strong>to</strong>ld that a mere accident has given <strong>the</strong> firstimpulse <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> composition of <strong>the</strong> work, and that accident appears <strong>to</strong> havebeen that at a social meeting of Irish clergymen in 1874 <strong>the</strong> subject ofconversation turned on <strong>the</strong> language and antiquities of Ireland.^Vfter domg justice <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> " Four Masters," of whum Irishmen are

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