The early literature of the Scottish Gael cannot be well understood apart from early Irish literature. The ballads of the two countries describe the same struggles; the characters engaging in the strife are the same, and bear the same names. So it ought to be interesting to compare some of the idealised characters of early Irish literature with those that we find in Scotland. The early history of Ireland and its literature has not yet been written, and the name remark is applicable to the Highlands of Scotland. One able and scientific work has been recently produced in the latter country—the learned three volumes of Dr W. F. Skene—“Celtic Scotland.” The indefatigable labours of the late Professor Eugone O’Curry have prepared the way for an authentic history of Ireland; and it is to be hoped that such works as those of the Gradys, Stokeses, &c., will clear the ground of fables and reveal the genuine lines of early Irish annals. In his “Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History,” O’Curry remarks—“It will be found that all the writers who have published books on the subject up to the time of delivering these lectures—books some of them large and elaborate—_not one_ ever wrote who had previously acquired the necessary qualifications, _or even applied himself at all to the necessary study_, without which, as I think I have established beyond a doubt, the history of Ireland could not possibly have been written. _All_ were ignorant, almost totally ignorant, of the greater part of the records and remains of which I have here, for the first time, endeavoured to present a comprehensive, and, in some sort, a connected account.” Irish scholars have an immense mass of valuable ancient manuscripts in which they find rich remains of their early literature, as well as materials for their early history. Let us mention some of the most important. Here is a list of some of the old and middle Irish periods:—