found by Edward Lhuyd in the Juvencus manuscript at Cambridge. The
mention of this Juvencus fragment, by-the-by, suggests the difference
there is between an interested and a disinterested critical habit.
Mr. Nash deals with this fragment; but, in spite of all his great
acuteness and learning, because he has a bias, because he does not
bring to these matters the disinterested spirit they need, he is
capable of getting rid, quite unwarrantably, of a particular word in
the fragment which does not suit him; his dealing with the verses is
an advocate's dealing, not a critic's. Of this sort of thing Zeuss
is incapable.

The test which Zeuss used for establishing the age of these documents
is a scientific test, the test of orthography and of declensional and
syntactical forms. These matters are far out of my province, but
what is clear, sound, and simple, has a natural attraction for us
all, and one feels a pleasure in repeating it. It is the grand sign
of age, Zeuss says, in Welsh and Irish words, when what the
grammarians call the 'destitutio tenuium' has not yet taken place;
when the sharp consonants have not yet been changed into flat, P or t
into B or D; when, for instance, map, a son, has not yet become mab;
coet a wood, coed; ocet, a harrow, oged. This is a clear, scientific
test to apply, and a test of which the accuracy can be verified; I do
not say that Zeuss was the first person who knew this test or applied
it, but I say that he is the first person who in dealing with Celtic
matters has invariably proceeded by means of this and similar
scientific tests; the first person, therefore, the body of whose work
has a scientific, stable character; and so he stands as a model to
all Celtic inquirers.

His influence has already been most happy; and as I have enlarged on