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by William Skene (Author)
From the preface: ""Heureux le peuple dont l'histoire ennuie," say the French, and if this be a just criterion of national prosperity, it must be confessed that the Highlanders of Scotland have no mean claim to be considered as one of the happiest people in Europe. Just as this remark may be with regard to Highland history, it would not be easy to assign a reason for it, still less to account for the general neglect which the history of that people has experienced, in an age when the early annals of almost every nation have been examined, and their true origin and history determined, with a talent and success to which no other period can show a parallel. The cause of this somewhat remarkable fact may, perhaps, be traced to the influence of that extraordinary prejudice against the Celtic race in general, and against the Scottish and Irish branches of that race in particular, which certainly biased the better judgment of our best historians, who appear to have regarded the Highlands with somewhat of the spirit of those who said of old, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth." But it is mainly to be attributed to the neglect, by the indiscreet supporters of Highland fables, of that strictly critical accuracy, in point of evidence and of reasoning, so indispensable to the value of historical research; the want of which infallibly leads to the loose style of argument and vague assumption so remarkably characteristic of that class of writers, and tends unfortunately to draw down upon the subject itself no small share of that ridicule to which the authors were more justly liable. The prevailing error which appears to me to have misled almost all who have as yet written upon the subject, has been the gratuitous assumption, not only by those whose writings are directed against the claims of the Highlanders, but also by their numerous defenders, that the present Highlanders are the descendants of the ancient Scotti, who, in company with the Picti, so often ravaged the Roman provinces in Britain. Nor have either party deemed it necessary to bring either argument or authority in support of their assumption. The Scots, as will be shewn in the sequel, were unquestionably a colony issuing from Ireland in the sixth century; and thus, while the one party triumphantly asserts the Irish origin of the Highlanders, their defenders have hitherto directed their efforts to the fruitless attempt of proving that the Scots were the original inhabitants of the country."
