5

NOTES,. 393
tliiog
would happen were the English characters applied to the
Greek or Hebrew languages. But where a language has not
been written, any alphabet will suit it, and they easily coalesce
and assimilate.
Had the Irish (Celtic) language not been a writ,
ten one, and its orthography settled, before the arriral of St.
Patrick, there could have been no possible obstacle to the intro.
duction of the Roman alphabet in its fullest extent.. Indeed,
bad this not been the case, the introduction of the Homan alpha,
bet
would have followed as a necessary and inevitable conse.
quence, though the Saint had been determined to prevent it.
7mo. Its antiquity. Many attempts have been made by Pinkarton,
and others, to get rid of the ancient Irish alphabet.
They
have rendered it a sort of short hand writing^ invented about the
tenth or eleventh century,—the Notae Longobardicae-^Runic
characters— magical or hieroglyphical letters, &c. But their
grand argument is, that St. Patrick introduced the Roman letters
in 432. Were we to grant this, it is the greatest death blow
which these gentlemen could receive, for it must then follow,
that such manuscripts as are written in the ancient Irish charac.
ters, are older than the aera of St, Patrick.
Bat (say they) these
characters were invented several centuries aftpr St,
Patrick had
introduced the Roman alphabet. This concession would be
equally fatal to them, foi; it would then follow, that St. Patricjc
was not the father of Irish letters, otherwise it would have been
totally unnecessary for the Irish
to frame an alphabet to themselves
several centuri.es after his arrival. The truth is, that the
Jrish had an alphabet before the arrival of St. Patrick, qnd that,
prior to that iera, the orthography of their language was fixed ;
and though St. Patrick and the christian clergy wrote the Irish
language in Rom^n characters, still they found it i6:ipossible to
add one letter
more to the Irish alphabet than it originally f>os.
sessed. The genius and orthography of the language rendered
it impracticable.
If any reinforcement from the Roman alpha,
bet was necessary, it was most particularly the letters v and ^,
yet these were never introduced.. That the Irisli alphabet has
liad its gradations from rudeness to perfection, is no more than