It is probable that Celtic will yet be found to have been one of the most important of the Indo-European tongues.

Its influence on the formation of the Romance languages has yet to be studied in the light of our continually increasing knowledge of its more ancient forms; and perhaps the conjectures of Betham will, by the close of this century, receive as much respect as the once equally ridiculed history of Keating.
It is almost impossible to doubt that the Irish nation had letters and some form of writing before the arrival of St.Patrick.There are so many references to the existence of writings in the most ancient MSS., that it appears more rash to deny their statements than to accept them.
[Illustration: RUNES FROM THE RUNIC CROSS AT RUTHWELL.] The three principal arguments against a pre-Christian alphabet appears to be: (1) The absence of any MS.

of such writing.

(2) The use of the Roman character in all MSS.extant.

(3) The universal opinion, scarcely yet exploded, that the Irish Celts were barbarians.