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ancient chronicles of their first settlements are generally tales
confuted by their own absurdity. The settlement of the greatest
consequence, the best authenticated, and from which the Irish deduce the
pedigree of the best families, is derived from Spain: it was called Clan
Milea, or the descendants of Milesius, and Kin Scuit, or the race of
Scyths, afterwards known by the name of Scots. The Irish historians
suppose this race descended from a person called Gathel, a Scythian by
birth, an Egyptian by education, the contemporary and friend of the
prophet Moses. But these histories, seeming clear-sighted in the obscure
affairs of so blind an antiquity, instead of passing for treasuries of
ancient facts, are regarded by the judicious as modern fictions. In
cases of this sort rational conjectures are more to be relied on than
improbable relations. It is most probable that Ireland was first peopled
from Britain. The coasts of these countries are in some places in sight
of each other. The language, the manners, and religion of the most
ancient inhabitants of both are nearly the same. The Milesian colony,
whenever it arrived in Ireland, could have made no great change in the
manners or language; as the ancient Spaniards were a branch of the
Celtae, as well as the old inhabitants of Ireland. The Irish language is
not different from that of all other nations, as Temple and Rapin, from
ignorance of it, have asserted; on the contrary, many of its words bear
a remarkable resemblance not only to those of the Welsh and Armoric, but
also to the Greek and Latin. Neither is the figure of the letters very
different from the vulgar character, though their order is not the same
with that of other nations, nor the names, which are taken from the
Irish proper names of several species of trees: a circumstance which,
notwithstanding their similitude to the Roman letters, argues a
different original and great antiquity. The Druid discipline anciently
flourished in that island. In the fourth century it fell down before the
preaching of St. Patrick. Then the Christian religion was embraced and
cultivated with an uncommon zeal, which displayed itself in the number
and consequence of the persons who in all parts embraced the
contemplative life. This mode of life, and the situation of Ireland,
removed from the horror of those devastations which shook the rest of
Europe, made it a refuge for learning, almost extinguished everywhere
else. Science flo