It is mostly religious works of the Evangelical and Puritan type that have been translated into Gaelic. The masterpieces of Bunyan, Brooks, Baxter, Burder, Owen, Howe, Doddridge, Alleine, etc. etc., have been rendered into good, popular Gaelic, and have had immense circulation. Hundreds of religious works have been translated, some as old as The Imitation, and as recent as Newman Hall’s Come to Jesus. The principal translators have been the Macfarlanes, Dr Smith, MacLaurin, Rose, Dr Macgillivray, Dr Mackintosh Mackay, the Rev. Allan Sinclair, and the Rev. A. Macgregor, translator of the Apocrypha. It was MacEachen, a Roman Catholic priest, that translated The Imitation. Several books of Homer’s Iliad were translated [by the accomplished] Ewen MacLachlan of Aberdeen; Virgil’s Æneid by Blair; and Tam O’Shanter and other poems by Robert MacDougall, the bard. As is well known, the Queen’s Book has been translated into excellent Gaelic by Mary Mackellar. The Good Templar and Masonic rituals were, with the help of the present writer, translated by Duncan Macpherson and Angus Nicholson respectively. Not the least important of recent efforts of this kind is the admirable translation of that great Highland charter of Gaelic emancipation, the Crofters’ Act, from the able and accurate pen of Mr Henry Whyte.
TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH.
A good deal of Gaelic literature has been translated into English, whilst the “Ossian” of Macpherson has been rendered into Latin and into most of the European languages. Following is a list of the names of those who have published anything of importance:—
| Jerome Stone | 1756 | Patrick Macgregor | 1840 | |
| James Macpherson | 1760 | Robert Munro | 1843 | |
| Rev. J. Wodrow | 1771 | Rev. Dr MacLauchlan | 1862 | |
| Ewen Cameron | 1777 | J. F. Campbell, Esq. | 1866 | |
| John Clark | 1778 | Rev. Thomas Pattison | 1866 | |
| Rev. Dr Smith | 1780 | Rev. Dr Clerk | 1870 | |
| Rev. Dr Ross | —— | Robert Buchanan | 1872 | |
| The MacCallums | 1816 | C. S. Jerram, Esq. | 1873 | |
| Mrs Grant | —— | Professor J. S. Blackie | 1876 |
The names of some others, such as Sinclair, the Whytes MacBean, etc., will occur to the Gaelic reader. The works translated by these writers would fill many volumes. The works of Macpherson, Dr Smith, Dr MacLauchlan, J. F. Campbell, Thomas Pattison, Dr Clerk, and Professor Blackie have received much attention, and are well-known. Macpherson and Smith translate, on the supposition of translation, very much in the style of Pope in his Homer with this difference, that their paraphrastic renderings are only in prose. MacLauchlan, Campbell, and Clerk have adopted a rigid literality of rendering which the Ossianic controversy, among other reasons, compelled them to follow. These writers give the original [Gaelic along with] the English version. So does Jerram, whose Dan an Deirg is scholarly and accurate, very much in the style of Clerk’s Ossian. In the Gaelic Bards of Pattison the original is not given, the work being intended for popular use among English readers. Pattison’s translations are metrical and rhyming; and so are Blackie’s in his admirable and interesting work, The Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands. Those to whom the Gaelic is a sealed language have kindled the flame of patriotic enthusiasm by the healthy mountain breezes which the perusal of these translations has brought down.
GRAMMARS AND DICTIONARIES.
Several good grammars and dictionaries have been published. Shaw, towards the end of last century, published a grammar and dictionary which are not of much value. Stewart’s Grammar in 1812 is still the best, and any new grammar must take Stewart’s as a basis. Currie, MacAlpine, Forbes, and Munro have also published grammars. Munro’s is a work of real scholarship and value, but badly arranged. Dr Macgillivray and L. MacBean have also written grammars, but the best of all recent attempts is that published by the late D. C. Macpherson, Edinburgh. Good grammars have also been written by Irishmen, and even Germans, from which much help may be obtained. The vocabularies of Macdonald and Macfarlane paved the way for the Highland Society’s Dictionary, published in 1828, a noble monument of Gaelic talent and industry. It appeared in two large volumes. Its departments are—Gaelic, English, and Latin; Anglo-Gaelic, Latino-Gaelic. There are 837 pages in the first volume, and 1016 in the second. The general conduct of the work was entrusted to the Rev. Dr John MacLeod of Dundonald. He was assisted by the Rev. Drs Irvine, Macdonald, and Ewan MacLachlan. In its progress through the press the work was carefully superintended and corrected by the Rev. Dr Mackintosh Mackay. None of the Celtic languages can boast of so extensive and learned a lexicon, although it is defective in etymology, the science of language being then only in its infancy. Armstrong and MacAlpine have also produced excellent and useful dictionaries. That of the former is not much inferior to that of the Highland Society’s, while MacAlpine’s has perhaps been the most successful of all. The indefatigable labours of the Macfarlanes, father and son, have been placed to the credit of Drs MacLeod and Dewar, whose names were thought a necessary guarantee by the publisher that their dictionary was of standard value. Theirs and MacAlpine’s are in general circulation. That of the latter is a pronouncing dictionary, and has been highly appreciated by those anxious to acquire the language. The translations of phrases and idiomatic expressions under the principal words are acknowledged to be a chief excellence of the work. The English-Gaelic part of MacAlpine’s dictionary was compiled by John Mackenzie, editor of “The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry,” who had some peculiar ideas of reform in Gaelic orthography. He was heartily execrated by the irascible MacAlpine for his labour, which was no doubt a hack business undertaken for publishers whom Mackenzie could not control. A good deal of material for an etymological dictionary was left by the late Dr Alexander Cameron of Brodick, the publication of which is looked for under the editorial care of Mr Alex. MacBain, M.A.
PROSE WRITERS.
The number of Gaelic prose writers is very limited. This fact is the result of various causes on the surface of things. Till the beginning of this century the vast masses of the Highland people were utterly unable to read, and even those who were able to make use of books turned to English productions sooner than to Gaelic ones, a tendency that is not invisible even in our own day. All that the plain Highlander has been able to consume in the way of literature he has found in the Book of Books—the Bible—and in the many translations of religious literature placed within his reach. Families and individuals destitute of the spiritual instinct have found all the literary sustenance needed in the old popular tales and poetry which circulated from mouth to mouth rather than in written forms. To the Finian tales and similar stuff the Highlanders of the nineteenth century were till recently as partial as those of the sixteenth century were to the oral literature of the same pagan character against which Superintendent Carsuel raised his ineffectual protest at the time of the Reformation. This oral form of literature required neither money nor ability to read for its enjoyment; while the manner of its culture helped to relieve the weariness and monotony of Highland life. Literature in books, which meant money, was therefore at a discount.