PREFACE.
That portion of this tractate which relates to Celtic manuscripts and the doings of Macpherson, was transmitted to theScotsmannewspaper, in reply to an article by Professor Mackinnon which appeared in that journal. My communication was however returned by the editor on the plea that he could not find room for its insertion. It was perhaps too much to expect that a journal owned by one of the secretaries of a Society, which had engaged the services of the Celtic Professor at Oxford, to uphold what I call the Celtic myth, should open its columns to one inimical to Macpherson, and utterly sceptical in regard to his pretended translation. Mr. Mackinnon’s enumeration seems a vindication of the antiquity of Celtic MSS. in general, and was no doubt also projected “as a basis for more extended collaboration.”
It occurred to me that my remarks on the Ossian MSS. might with advantage be incorporated with some notice of Professor Freeman’scriticism of “The Viking Age,” both tending in the same direction. One wipes out the Celts as the pioneers of civilization, the other explodes the Saxons as a race distinct from the Scandinavians. With this in view I have been aiming for some time past, to put my thoughts in train for publication, but want of time has always stood in the way.
J. C. ROGER.
Friars Watch,Walthamstow.October, 1890.