And with the clergy make thy peace, Unworthy, helpless though thou be; Repent aright, and sinning cease, Lest heavy guilt be found on thee. He who forsakes the Lord Most High For love of sin, sinks deep in woes; The evils wrought in secresy Full well the Eye all-searching knows. Let these be thoughts for Adam’s race; To me they do not seem untrue; Men for a time may know their place, But death at last they can’t eschew. Muireadhach Albannach occupies the same relation to a number of succeeding generations of bards in Scotland that the famous Dafydd ap Gwilym (born, 1293) does towards succeeding Welsh bards. We have a specimen of the written Gaelic of this period in the famous Macdonald charter, the earliest Gaelic one extant. In 1408 Donald, Lord of the Isles, granted lands in Islay to Brian Vicar Mackay of Rhinns, in that Island. The Mackays were an old family in Islay; from them came the Magees of Ireland, and I believe the present Bishop of Peterborough. The lands were Baile-Vicar, Cornobus, Cracobus, Tocamol, &c., in the parish of Kildalton. The charter conveying these lands, still in existence, is written in Gaelic. It was published some time ago by the Record Commission. It is an interesting document, and is here given in a literal translation. It was written by one of the Beatons, already referred to, who signs himself “Fergus M’Beth.” He was probably at the time physician to the Lord of the Isles. As Dr M’Lauchlan, who deciphered it, says—“The style of the charter is that of the usual feudal charters written in Latin, but the remarkable thing is to find a document of the kind written in Gaelic, at a time when such a thing was almost unknown in the Saxon dialects of either England or Scotland.” It is interesting to find that the Gaelic of the charter, written 470 years ago, is the same as that spoken in Islay at the present day. One word _brach_, “ever” is spelt phonetically, just as it is pronounced now in the dialect of the island. The only word which seems to have changed its signification is _bheatha_, or unaspirated _beatha_, which was then used for “world.” _Beatha_ in modern Gaelic means life, but an older form was _bith_, which now means being or existence, but in ancient Gaelic was used for “world.” See _Zeuss’s Grammar_. In the name of God. Amen.