the son of Fingal, a celebrated Celtic poet, who flourished about the end of the second and beginning beginning of the third century. Several incidents in his poems point out this as his æra: particularly the engagement of Fingal with Caracul, or Caracalla, the son of the emperor Severus, styled by Offian, The Son of the King of the World. M. Tillemont fixes the elevation of Caracalla to a share in the government to the year 198, and the accession of his brother Geta to 208. About which time Gibbon fixes the Caledonian war, and speaks thus upon the subject: "This Caledonian war, neither marked by decisive events, nor attended with any important consequences, would ill deserve our attention; but it is supposed, not without a considerable degree of probability, that the invasion of Severus is connected with the most shining period of the British history or fable. Fingal, whose fame, with that of his heroes and bards, has been revived in our language by a recent publication, is said to have commanded the Caledonians in that memorable juncture, to have eluded the power of Severus, and to have obtained a signal victory on the banks of the Carun, in which the son of the King of the World, Caracul, fled from his arms along the fields of his pride*. Something of a doubtful mift still hangs over these Highland traditions; nor can it be entirely dispelled by the most ingenious researches of modern criticism (a); but if we could with safety indulge the pleasing supposition that Fingal lived, and that Offian sung, the striking contrast of the situation and manners of the contending nations might amuse a philosophic mind. The parallel would be little to the advantage of the more civilized people, if we compared the unrelenting revenge of Severus with the generous clemency of Fingal; the timid and brutal cruelty of Caracalla, with the bravery, the tenderness, the elegant genius of Offian; the mercenary chiefs who, from motives of fear or interest, served under the Imperial standard, with the free-born warriors who started to arms at the voice of the king of Morven: if, in a word, we contemplated the untutored Caledonians glowing with the warm virtues of nature, and the degenerate Romans polluted with the mean vices of wealth and slavery."

The date of this action, if the poems be true, is rather confounding; for the next expedition, which is produced to fix the time in which Offian flourished, was conducted by Ocar (against the usurped Carausius, the Caros of Offian), who did not assume the purple till so late as the year 287. This account indeed corresponds pretty well with the account given by Irish histories, which place the death of Fingal in the year 283, and that of Ocar (who died many years before his father Offian) in the year 296. These hints are not thrown out because we think they militate against the authenticity of the poems; for distant though these dates be, it is yet possible to reconcile them. Old age was and is very common in those regions; and Offian himself, we are told, was an instance of great longevity. Indeed at such a distance of time, it cannot be expected that we should give either a very particular or a very exact account of Offian and his heroes. Were there no doubts remaining of the truth of the facts, it is still natural to suppose that they must have suffered obscurity through the rust of time, and above all through the neglect of the poems, which till lately were unknown.

The first expedition on which Offian's father sent him was, to raise a stone on the banks of Crona, to perpetuate the memory of a victory which the king of Morven had obtained at that place. The Highlanders talk of this as being emblematical of that immortality which heroes were to receive from his future compositions. In this expedition he was accompanied by Tofcar, father of the beautiful Malvina, the amiable companion of his grief, after the death of her beloved Oscar, his son. It appears from his poems, that in one of his early expeditions to Ireland, he had fallen in love with and married Evirallin, daughter to Branno, petty king of Lego. "I went in suit of the maid of Lego's sable surge; twelve of my people were there, the sons of streamy Morven. We came to Branno, friend of strangers; Branno of the founding mail.—'From whence (he said) are the arms of steel? Not easy to win is the maid that has denied the blue-eyed sons of Erin. But blest be thou, O son of Fingal! happy is the maid that waits thee. Though twelve daughters were mine, thine were the choice, thou son of fame.'—Then he opened the hall of the maid; the dark-haired Evirallin*." This Evirallin was the mother of his son Oscar, whose exploits he celebrates in many of his poems, and whose death he laments in the first book of Temora. Evirallin died some time before Oscar (FINGAL, B. iv.), who seems to have been her only child; and Offian did not marry afterwards; so that his poetry ended in the death of Oscar; who seems to have died as he was about to be married to Malvina, the daughter of Tofcar. Several of her lamentations for her lover are recorded by Offian, which paint her grief in the strongest and most beautiful colours. "It is the voice of my love! few are his visits to my dreams.—But thou dwellest in the soul of Malvina, son of mighty Offian. My sighs arise with the beams of the east; my tears descend with the drops of night. I was a lovely tree in thy presence, Oscar, with all my branches round me: but thy death came like a blast from the desert, and laid my green head low; the spring returned with its showers, but no green leaf of mine arose." Poem of CROMA.

The principal residence of Offian was in the vale of Cona, now Glenco, in Argylshire. See FINGAL. His poems relate many of his expeditions to Ireland,

(a) "That the Caracul of Offian is the Caracalla of the Roman history, is perhaps the only point of British antiquity in which Mr Macpherfon and Mr Whitaker are of the same opinion; and yet the opinion is not without difficulty. In the Caledonian war, the son of Severus was known only by the appellation of Antoninus; and it may seem strange that the Highland bard should describe him by a nickname, invented four years afterwards, scarcely used by the Romans till after the death of that emperor, and seldom employed by the most ancient historians. See Dion, lib. lxxvii. p. 1317. Hist. August. p. 89. Aurel. Victor. Euseb. in Chron. ad ann. 214." OSS

land, Scandinavia, Clyde, and Tweed or Teutha. His exploits on these occasions, after making a large allowance for poetical exaggeration, show him to have been no less a warrior than a poet: (See Ossian's Works, in the poems Cathom and Colmal, Lathmon, Berrathon, &c.). By these expeditions, which were always undertaken for the relief of the distressed, the mind of Ossian seems to have been cultivated and enlarged beyond what is usually to be met with in so rude a period of society as that in which he lived. His poems breathe, throughout, such a spirit of generosity and tenderness, especially towards the fair sex, as is seldom or never to be met with in the compositions of other poets who lived in a more advanced state of civilization. He lived to an extreme old age; having survived all his family and friends, many of whom perished by a fatal accident, recorded in one of his poems called the fall of Turu*. Malvina alone, the love of his son Oscar, remained with him till within a few years of his death, and paid him every attention that could be expected from the tender relation in which she stood to him. To her he addresses many of his poems, which seem to have been composed for the most part in his old age. Her death is pathetically lamented by him in the poem of Berrathon; towards the close of which, he gives the prefaces of his own departure; an event which he often wishes for, under the blindness and other calamities of his declining years.

"Roll on, ye dark brown years, for ye bring no joy on your course. Let the tomb open to Ossian, for his strength has failed. The sons of the song are gone to rest: my voice remains, like a blast, that roars lonely, on the sea surrounded rock, after the winds are laid. The dark mofs whistles there, and the distant mariner sees the waving trees †."—"But Ossian is a tree that is withered. Its branches are blasted and bare; no green leaf covers its boughs. From its trunk no young shoot is seen to spring. The breeze whistles in its gray mofs: the blast shakes its head of ages.—The storm will soon overturn it, and fire all its dry branches with thee, O Dermid! and with all the rest of the mighty dead, in the green winding vale of Cona ‡."

It is not certain at what age Ossian died; but from his having been long blind with years, and from the many contrasts between his present and past situations, in poems composed, as it would appear, at a considerable distance of time from each other, it is most likely he lived to an extreme old age. The current tradition is, that he died in the house of a Culdee, called the Son of Alpin, with whom he is said to have held several conferences about the doctrines of Christianity. One of these dialogues is still preserved, and bears the genuine marks of a very remote antiquity; (Dissertation prefixed to Ossian's Works). Several of Ossian's poems are addressed to this son of Alpin, who was probably one of those Christians whom the persecution under Diocletian had driven beyond the pale of the Roman empire.

The poems of Ossian, though always held in the highest esteem by those who knew them, were allowed to remain in the obscurity of their original Gaelic, till Mr Macpherson, above 40 years ago, translated a collection of them into English, which immediately attracted the attention of every person who had a true taste for poetry. Dr Blair, in particular, introduced these poems into the world with those critical remarks which do no less honour to himself than to the poet. According to that eminent critic, the two great characteristics of Ossian's poetry are tenderness and sublimity. Ossian is, perhaps, the only poet who never relaxes, or lets himself down into the light and amusing strain. He moves perpetually in the high region of the grand and pathetic. The events which he records are all serious and grave; the scenery wild and romantic. We find not in him an imagination that sports itself, and drestes out gay trifles to please the fancy. His poetry, more perhaps than that of any other, deserves to be styled the poetry of the heart. It is a heart penetrated with noble sentiments, with sublime and tender passions; a heart that glows and kindles the fancy; a heart that is full, and pours itself forth. Of all the great poets, Homer is the one whose manner and whose times come the nearest to Ossian's. Homer's ideas were more enlarged, and his characters more diversified. Ossian's ideas fewer, but of the kind fittest for poetry; the bravery and generosity of heroes, the tenderness of lovers, and the attachment of friends. Homer is diffuse; Ossian abrupt and concise. His images are a blaze of lightning, which flash and vanish. Homer has more of impetuosity and fire; Ossian of a solemn and awful grandeur. In the pathetic, Homer has a great power; but Ossian exerts that power much oftener, and has the character of tenderness more deeply imprinted on his works. No poet knew better how to seize and melt the heart. With regard to dignity of sentiment, we must be surprised to find that the pre-eminence must clearly be given to the Celtic bard. This appears nowhere more remarkable than in the sentiments which he expresses towards his enemies. "Uthal fell beneath my sword, and the sons of Berrathon fled.—It was then I saw him in his beauty, and the tear hung in my eye. Thou art fallen, young tree, I said, with all thy beauty round thee. Thou art fallen on thy plains, and the field is bare. The winds come from the desert, and there is no found in thy leaves! Lovely art thou in death, son of car-borne Lathmore *." His supposition, that all the little feuds and differences of this life should be forgotten in a future state, and that the arms to the fame shill in Loda," gives us the highest idea of the man as well as of the poet. "Daughter of beauty, thou art low! A strange shore receives thy corse. But the ghosts of Morven will open their halls when they see thee coming. Heroes around the feast of dim shells, in the midst of clouds shall admire thee; and virgins shall touch the harp of mist †."—The feuds of other years by the mighty dead are forgotten. The warriors now meet in peace, and ride together on the tempest's wing. No clang of the shield, no noise of the spear, is heard in their peaceful dwellings. Side by side they sit, who once mixed in battle their steel. There, Lochlin and Morven meet at the mutual feast, and listen together to the song of their bards ‡."

But the sublimity of moral sentiments, if they want of the softening of the tender, would be in hazard of giving a stiff air to poetry. It is not enough that we admire. Admiration is a cold feeling in comparison of that deep interest the heart takes in tender and pathetic scenes. With scenes of this kind Ossian abounds; and his high merit in these is incontestable. He may be blamed for drawing tears too often from our eyes; but that he has the power of commanding them no man who has the least sensibility can question. His poems awake the tenderest sympathies, and inspire the most generous emotions. No reader can rise from him without being warmed by the sentiments of humanity, virtue, and honour.

But the excellency of these poems occasioned in many persons a doubt of their authenticity. Their genuineness, however, has been very ably defended by Dr Blair and Lord Kames, and warmly supported by the author of the Gaelic Antiquities, who has given the public some more remains of Oflan's poetry.

As the nature of our work will not allow us to treat this matter at full length, we shall only give a brief view of the arguments offered in support of the authenticity of these poems, referring our readers to the authors just now mentioned and others, for fuller satisfaction.

"In every period of society (says Dr Blair), human manners are a curious spectacle; and the most natural pictures of ancient manners are exhibited in the ancient poems of nations. These make us acquainted with the notions and feelings of our fellow-creatures in the most articulate ages; discovering what objects they admired, and what pleasures they pursued, before those refinements of society had taken place, which enlarge indeed, and diversify the transactions, but disguise the manners of mankind.

"Besides this, ancient poems have another merit with persons of taste. They promise some of the highest beauties of poetical writing. That state, in which human nature shoots wild and free, though unfit for other improvements, certainly encourages the high exertions of fancy and passion.

"In the infancy of societies the passions of men have nothing to restrain them; their imagination has nothing to check it. And as their feelings are strong, so their language of itself assumes a poetical turn. Men never have used so many figures of style, as in those rude ages, when, besides a warm imagination to suggest lively images, the want of proper and precise terms for the ideas they would express, obliged them to have recourse to circumlocution, metaphor, comparison, and all those substituted forms of expression, which give a poetical air to language. An American chief, at this day, harangues at the head of his tribe in a more bold metaphorical style than a modern European would adventure to use in an epic poem.

"Poetry has been said to be more ancient than prose, which, in a qualified sense, is true. Music or song has been found coeval with society among the most barbarous nations; and the only subjects which could prompt men, in their first rude state, to utter their thoughts in compositions of any length, were such as naturally assumed the tone of poetry; praises of their gods, or of their ancestors; commemorations of their own warlike exploits; or lamentations over their misfortunes. And before writing was invented, no other compositions, except songs or poems, could take such hold of the imagination and memory, as to be preserved by oral tradition, and handed down from one race to another.

"Hence we may expect to find poems among the antiquities of all nations. It is probable, too, than an extensive search would discover a certain degree of resemblance among all the most ancient poetical productions, from whatever country they have proceeded. In a familiar state of manners, similar objects and passions operating upon the imaginations of men, will stamp their productions with the same general character. Some diversity will, no doubt, be occasioned by climate and genius. But mankind never bear such resembling features as they do in the beginnings of society. What we call the oriental vein of poetry, because the earliest poetical productions have come to us from the east, is probably no more oriental than occidental; it is characteristic of an age rather than a country; and belongs, in some measure, to all nations at a certain period. Of this the works of Oflan seem to furnish a remarkable proof.

"He appears clearly to have lived in a period which enjoyed all the benefit I have just now mentioned of traditionary poetry. The exploits of Trathal, Trenmor, and the other ancestors of Fingal, are spoken of as familiarly known. Ancient bards are frequently alluded to. In one remarkable passage, Oflan describes himself as living in a fort of classical age, enlightened by the memorials of former times, conveyed in the songs of bards, and points at a period of ignorance which lay beyond the reach of tradition. Oflan himself appears to have been endowed by nature with exquisite sensibility; prone to that tender melancholy which is so often an attendant on great genius; and susceptible equally of strong and of soft emotions. He was not only a professed bard, but a warrior also, and the son of the most renowned hero and prince of his age. This formed a conjunction of circumstances, uncommonly favourable towards exalting the imagination of a poet.

"The manners of Oflan's age were favourable to a poetical genius. Covetousness and effeminacy were unknown. The cares of men were few. The great object pursued by heroic spirits, was, 'to receive their fame,' that is, to become worthy of being celebrated in the songs of bards; and 'to have their names on the four gray stones.' To die un lamented by a bard was deemed to great a misfortune as even to disturb their ghosts in another state. In such times as these, in a country where poetry had been so long cultivated, and so highly honoured, is it any wonder that, among the race and succession of bards, one Homer should arise: a man who, endowed with a natural, happy genius, favoured by peculiar advantages of birth and condition, and meeting, in the course of his life, with a variety of incidents proper to fire his imagination, and to touch his heart, should attain a degree of eminence in poetry, worthy to draw the admiration of more refined ages?"

Besides, his compositions, when viewed in themselves, have, we are told, all the internal marks of antiquity so strongly impressed upon them, that no reader of taste and judgment can deny their claim to it. They exhibit so lively a picture of customs which have disappeared for ages, as could be drawn only from nature and real life. The features are so distinct, that few portraits of the life continually passing before us are found to be drawn with so much likeness. The manners uniformly relate to a very early stage of society; and no hint, no allusion to the arts, customs, or manners, of a more advanced. OSS

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vanced period, appears throughout the poems. To that distinction of ranks, which is always found in adult societies, the poet appears to have been a perfect stranger. The first heroes prepare their own repasts, and indiscriminately condescend to the most menial services. Their quarrels arise from causes generally slight, but in such a period extremely natural. A rivalry in love, an omission at a feast, or an affront at a tournament, are often the foundation of a quarrel among single heroes. And the wars in which whole tribes are engaged, are carried on with a view, not to enlarge their territory, but to revenge perhaps the killing of a few deer on their mountains, or the taking forcibly away one of their women. Their occupation was war and hunting; and their chief ambition was to have their fame in the songs of the bards.

The notions of a future state, exhibited in these poems, are likewise strongly marked with the character of antiquity. A creed so uncommon, that the imagination of a modern could not be supposed to grasp so strong an idea of it from mere fancy, is uniformly supported throughout. This creed is extremely simple, but admirably suited to the times.

The language, too, and the structure, of these poems, bear the most striking characters of antiquity. The language is bold, animated, and metaphorical, such as it is found to be in all infant states; where the words, as well as the ideas and objects, must be few; and where the language, like the imagination, is strong and undisciplined. No abstract, and few general, terms appear in the poems of Ossian. If objects are but introduced in a simile, they are always particularized. It is "the young pine of Inilhuna;" it is "the bow of the flowery Lena." This character, so conspicuous in the poems of Ossian, is a striking feature in the language of all early states; whose objects and ideas are few and particular, and whose ordinary conversation is of course highly figurative and poetical. A picture, therefore, marked with such striking features, could not be drawn without an original.

The whole texture of the composition is also, like the language, bold, nervous, and concise; yet always plain and artless; without any thing of that modern refinement, or elaborate decoration, which attend the advancement of literature. No foreign ornaments are hunted after. The wild and grand nature which lay within the poet's view, is the only source from which he draws his ornaments. Beyond this circle, his imagination, though quick and rapid, seldom made any excursion. We perceive his language always to be that of a person who saw and felt what he describes; who bore a part in the expeditions which he celebrates, and who fought in the battles which he sings. Such is the nature of the internal proof adduced in the present case, which unquestionably has weight, and that not inconsiderable; but unsupported by external proof, or contrary to facts, however forcible it may be in itself, when considered in this connection, and found wanting, it will neither silence the querulous sceptic, nor, in all probability, will it ever convince those who have truth for their object, and who wish to investigate, and, if possible, discover it on firmer grounds. Internal proof is of the greatest service in a variety of excellent causes; but it comes in rather as a succedaneum than as direct evidence; and without something more to the purpose, it may excite admiration, but will seldom enforce belief. Of the customs and manners of ancient times we know but little, and of that little we have often but a confused notion. There is therefore room for genius and ability to exert itself in deceiving; and in proportion to the darkness in which the subject is involved, the deception will generally be the more complete, and the secret windings of error less easy to be developed.

Defective of external proof, authenticity may appear to be probable, but cannot be certain; and in such circumstances, on many occasions, and especially with respect to ancient writings, we may, without any offence to truth or to sound reasoning, give them up as spurious. In the present instance, therefore, it is just and proper to add to what has been already said, the more external and positive proofs of the authenticity of the poems in question, by the strength or weakness of which the subject must be finally determined. It is observed, therefore, That there have been in the Highlands of Scotland, for some ages back, a vast many poems ascribed to Ossian: That these poems have been held in the highest veneration, repeated by almost all persons, and on all occasions. These are facts so well known, that nobody as yet has been hardy enough to deny them. There is not an old man in the Highlands, who will not declare, that he heard such poems repeated by his father and grandfather as pieces of the most remote antiquity. There is not a district in the Highlands where there are not many places, waters, hills, caves, and mountains, which from time immemorial are called after the names of Ossian's heroes.—There is not a lover of ancient tale or poetry, however illiterate, who is not well acquainted with almost every single name, character, and incident, mentioned in those translations of Ossian's poems, which he may have never heard of.—Bards, who are themselves several centuries old, quote those poems, imitate them, and refer to them.—The ordinary conversation and comparisons of the Highlanders frequently allude to the customs and characters mentioned in them;—and many of their most common proverbs, established by the most ancient use, are lines borrowed from the poems of Ossian *.—The most ancient of the clans boast of deriving their pedigree, each from some one of Ossian's heroes;—and many of the signs armorial affixed by them, are drawn from the feats ascribed to their predecessors in those poems †. Manuscripts are mentioned, in which some of those have been preserved for several centuries ‡; and a list of living names, in different parts of the Highlands, is appealed to, as persons who still repeat a part of these poems §. Whilst Mr Macpherson was engaged in the translation, many respectable persons, gentlemen and clergymen, avowed to the public, that these were Ossian's poems, with which they had long been acquainted, and that the translation was literal ¶. This appears also from the large specimens of the originals published and compared by proper judges. The originals lay a considerable time in the hands of the bookseller, for the inspection of the curious; they have been afterwards shown frequently to many of the best judges, and offered for publication if the editor had been favoured with subscriptions. The editor of the pamphlet, in which their authenticity is attested by many respectable names of undoubted veracity, observes, by way of conclusion, "that more testimony might have been produced by a more enlarged correspondence correspondence with the Highland counties: But I apprehend, if any apology is necessary, it is for producing so many names in a question where the confiding silence of a whole country was, to every unprejudiced person, the strongest proof that spurious compositions, in the name of that country, had not been obtruded upon the world." It is likewise argued in support of the authenticity of these poems, that candid sceptics, on hearing some of them repeated by illiterate persons, who had never seen the translation, caused them to give the meaning of what they repeated, by an extempore translation into English, and by this means had all their doubts of the authenticity of Ossian removed*. They urge further, that such passages of Ossian's works as are still repeated by some old men, are among the most beautiful parts of Ossian's poems; such as the battle of Lora, the most affecting parts of Carthon, Berrathon, the death of Oscar, and Darthula, or the children of Ufnoth, &c.; which gives a credibility to his being equal to the other parts of the collection, none of it being superior to these in merit.

To these and the like arguments advanced in support of the authenticity of the poems ascribed to Ossian, many objections have been urged. Those of Johnson and his friend Shaw are universally known. A later writer objects to them in the following manner: No fragments of British poetry in Scotland are to be found. Many specimens of Irish poetry in Scotland have been published; but none older than a century or two. Translations have also appeared; but, in general, of no fidelity. Those of the poems ascribed to Ossian, in particular, have deservedly drawn much of the public attention; but they will only mislead any reader who wishes to form an idea of Celtic poetry. He that believes Ossian to have flourished about the year 320, and his writings preserved by oral tradition for 1460 years, large is his faith, and he might move mountains! Gentlemen of the Highlands of Scotland, with whom our author conversed on the subject, assured him, that they looked upon nine-tenths of Mr Macpherson's work as his own; and upon the other tenth, as so much changed by him, that all might be regarded as his own composition. There are positive evidences, he says, which convince him that not one of the poems given to Ossian, and probably not one passage of them, is older than the 18th century. The very first author we know who mentions Fingal, is Barbour, a Scotch poet, who wrote in 1375. Fingal was an Irish hero: and one Good, a schoolmaster of Limerick, sent some account of Ireland to Camden, in 1566, in which mention is made of some strange fables, that the people amuse themselves with, about the "giants Fin Mac Huyle, and Otker Mac Oshin," of which we shall speak more largely presently. In the mean time, to these and such like objections, it has been answered, That poetry has been cultivated with most success in the earliest ages of society; that in Greece, Orpheus, Linus, Hesiod, and Homer, wrote their admirable poems some ages before anything had been written in prose in the Greek language; that the book of Job, written in a very early period of society, is highly poetical; that among the tribes of Lapland and America, there have been found, in the earliest state, some excellent pieces of poetry. That the Caledonians, in particular, had some peculiar institutions, which tended to improve their poetry: their druids were among the most learned philosophers which perhaps any age or country produced; their bards or poets were the disciples of those druids, and were always a standing order, to which none but the most promising geniuses were admitted. This standing college of poets was furnished, not only with the fruits of their own long study and observation, but also with as much as merited to be preferred of the compositions of their predecessors in office, since the "light of the song" first dawned. They had the advantage of one another's conversation; which would excite their emulation, and make them aspire to eminence: They were always present, and generally engaged, in every grand operation that was transacted; which could not fail to inspire their muse with the truest poetic fire.

The case of Ossian was particularly favourable. He lived in an age when manners came to a considerable degree of refinement under the care of the bards and druids. Poetry in his day was considerably advanced; and the language, though strong and figurative, had undergone some degree of cultivation, and learned to flow in regular numbers, adapted to the harp, the favourite instrument of the times. As a prince and a warrior, his mind must have been expanded and much enlarged by his excursions to other countries. At home he had Ullin, Alpin, Carril, and Ryno, to converse with; all of them poets of eminence, who would have advanced him greatly by their example and conversation. All these advantages, meeting with a native fire and enthusiasm of genius, as in the case of Ossian, may well be supposed to have produced poems that might challenge the veneration of ages.

But it is not to their merit alone that we owe the preservation of these poems so long by oral tradition. Other circumstances concurred; of which, the institution of the Bards deserves particular notice. In a country, the only one perhaps in the world in which there was always, from the earliest period almost to the present age, a standing order of poets, we cannot reasonably be surprised, either at finding excellent poems composed, or, after being composed, carefully preserved from oblivion. A great part of the business of this order was to watch over the poems of Ossian. In every family of distinction there was always one principal bard, and a number of disciples, who vied with each other in having these poems in the greatest perfection. Should the institution of the bards last for ever, the poems of Ossian could never perish.

Nor were they only the bards of great families who took an interest in these poems; the vassal, equally fond of the song with his superior, entertained himself in the same manner. This, with a life free from care, a spirit unbroken by labour, and a space of time unoccupied by any other employment or diversion, contributed to render the Highlanders a nation of singers and poets. From such a people, the superior merit of Ossian's poems would naturally procure every encouragement, which they always retained as long as the manners of the people remained unchanged.

Many other reasons conspired to preserve the poems of Ossian. The martial and intrepid spirit which they breathed, made it the interest of the chieftains to preserve them: the strain of justice, generosity, and humanity, which runs through them, recommended them to the superintendants of religion, who well knew how much the morals of a people must be tinctured with those songs which they are continually repeating, and which have all the advantages of poetry and of music. In superstitious ages, the people revered these poems, from their being addressed generally to some "son of the rock," supposed to be the tutelar saint of the place, or the great Irish apostle St Patrick. Besides, every hill and dale which the natives of the Highlands walked over, was clastic ground. Every mountain, rock, and river, was immortalized in the song. This song would naturally be suggested by the sight of these objects, and every body would hum it as he walked along. All the proverbs and customs to which these poems gave rise, would operate in the same manner. The son would ask what they meant, and the father would repeat the song from which they were taken. The distinct and unsubdued state in which the Highlanders remained for so long a course of ages, every clan, one generation after another, inhabiting the same valley, till towards the present century, contributed much to preserve their traditions and their poems; and the constant and general custom of repeating these in the winter nights, kept them always alive in their remembrance.

To these causes and customs the preservation of Ossian's poems, for so many ages, has been ascribed. But these causes and customs have ceased to exist; and the poems of Ossian, of course, have ceased to be repeated.—Within a century back, the Highlands of Scotland have undergone a greater revolution than it had done for ten before that period. With a quicker pace the feudal system vanished; property fluctuated; new laws and new customs swept in, and supplanted the old; and all this, with such sudden and such violent convulsions, as may well account for the shaking of a fabric which had stood so many ages, that it seemed to have bidden defiance to all the injuries of time. Even since Mr Macpherson gathered the poems in his collection, the amusements, employments, and taste of the Highlanders are much altered. A greater attention to commerce, agriculture, and pasturage, has quite engrossed that partial attention which was paid, even then, to the song of the bard. In twenty years hence, if manners continue to change so fast as they do at present, the faintest traces will scarce be found of those tales and poems. "Ossian himself is the last of his race; and he too shall soon be no more, for his gray branches are already firewood on all the winds."

Among the causes which make these poems vanish so rapidly, poverty and the iron rod should come in for a large share. From the baneful shade of those murderers of the muse, the light of the song must fast retire. No other reason needs be given why the present Highlanders neglect so much the songs of their fathers.—Once, the humble, but happy wafal, fat at his ease, at the foot of his grey rock or green tree. Few were his wants, and fewer still his cares; for he beheld his herds sporting around him, on his then unmeasured mountain. He hummed the careless song, and tuned his harp with joy, while his soul in silence blessed his children.—Now, we were going to draw the comparison:

sed Cynthiae aurum Vellit et admonuit.

It is more agreeable to remark, as another cause for the neglect of ancient poems and traditions, the growth of industry, which fills up all the blanks of time to more advantage, and especially the increase of more useful knowledge.—But above all, the extinction of the order of the bards haltered the catastrophe of Ossian's poems. By a happy coincidence Macpherson overtook the last that remained of this order, (Macvarich, bard to Clanronald), and got his treasure. This fact (with the red book furnished by Mr Macdonald of Croidart, and some other MSS.) accounts for Mr Macpherson's having found these poems in greater number and perfection, than they could ever since be met with. The fragments, however, which have since been gathered, give a credibility to every thing that has been said of the original grandeur of the building.

Although this disquisition has already extended to a length which readers not partial to Scottish antiquities will perhaps think too great, we cannot dismiss it without observing, that Fingal and Ossian have been claimed by the Irish as well as by the Caledonians. On this double claim, as well as on the controversy concerning the authenticity of the poems, there is so much candour and good sense in the following remarks of T. F. Hill, published in the 53d volume of the Gentleman's Magazine, that we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of making them conclude the article.

Mr Hill travelled through the Highlands of Scotland during the summer months of 1783. He seems to have been very ardent in his inquiries concerning Ossian, and to have conducted those inquiries with great judgment. The consequence was, that he received different accounts in different places, and picked up various songs relating to Fingal and his heroes.

"From this collection, it is evident (says he) that there are many traditional songs preserved in the Highlands relating to Fingal and his heroes, as well as to several other subjects. It is also evident, that these songs contain portions of the very poems published by Mr Macpherson and Mr Smith, under the name of Ossian. We may therefore justly conclude, that these poems are not wholly the forgery of their editors, but compiled at least from original songs. I by no means think it worth my while to notice the various conceits in favour of this conclusion, which the minor antagonists of Ossian have of late been forced to make. I myself have given proofs of it, which need I hope no external confirmation. To these proofs might be added, that I met with many traditional preservers of these songs, in every different part of the Highlands: some of whom, especially in Argyleshire, Lochaber, and on the rest of the western coast, were said to possess various poems attributed to Ossian, although I had neither leisure nor opportunity to collect copies from them.—But enough has already been said on this subject, if my testimony deserves regard.

"These principles being established, it remains to be considered how far the poems published by Macpherson and Smith deserve to be considered as the works of Ossian.

"The songs attributed to that bard, which contain passages of the Ossian of Macpherson and Smith, are by no means uniformly consistent with the poems in which the the parallel passages are found, but frequently relate to different events, and even contain different circumstances. From hence it seems most probable, that Mr Macpherson and Mr Smith compiled their publications from those parts of the Highland songs which they most approved, combining them into such forms as according to their ideas were most excellent, and preserving the old names and the leading events. In this process they were supported and encouraged by the variety of songs preserved in the Highlands upon the same subject, and by the various modes in which the same event is related. Mr Macpherson may indeed have MSS. of all the poems he has published; which MSS. may either have been compiled by himself, or by some former collector; or they may possibly contain entire poems really ancient. But Mr Smith has honestly acknowledged, that he himself compiled his Ossian in the manner above described.

After the materials were collected (says he), the next labour was to compare the different editions; to strike off several parts that were manifestly spurious; to bring together some episodes that appeared to have a relation to one another, though repeated separately; and restore to their proper places some incidents that seemed to have run from one poem to another;—and hence it was unavoidably necessary to throw in sometimes a few lines or sentences to join some of the episodes together.—I am sensible that the form of these poems is considerably altered from what is found in any one of the editions from which they are compiled. They have assumed somewhat more of the appearance of regularity and art—than that bold and irregular manner in which they are originally delivered.

Mr Smith also speaks of the Ossian of Mr Macpherson in a somewhat similar manner: 'That we have not the whole of the poems of Ossian, or even of the collection translated by Mr Macpherson, we allow; yet still we have many of them, and of almost all a part. The building is not entire, but we have till the grand ruins of it.'

What portion, therefore, of the Ossian of Macpherson and Smith is original, no man can determine except themselves. Smith indeed says, that he has mentioned all his material alterations, transpositions, and additions, in his notes; and that, for the most part, he was guided in them by the Sgéalachds, or traditional tales accompanying the songs; but there are few such notes in his book, and perhaps as few such Sgéalachds in the mouths of the Highlanders. In Macpherson and Smith also we see these poems divested of their idiomatic peculiarities and fabulous ornaments; which renders it impossible to discover what manners and opinions are really ancient, and what are of modern invention. Yet it is remarkable, that in spite of all the objections to their authenticity, necessarily produced by such a treatment of them, they still possess an internal evidence of originality which has enabled them hitherto to withstand all the torrent of opposition.

The Ossian of Macpherson and Smith appears there-

fore to be a mutilated work, even though we should suppose that the songs they originally compiled from were the undoubted works of that celebrated bard. But this is far from being the case; for even allowing that an Ossian ever existed and wrote, yet time must have introduced such material changes in his works if preserved merely by tradition during so long a period, that their own author would hardly know them again. I think it however doubtful, whether such a being as Ossian ever appeared in the world.

All the songs which I met with in the Highlands relative to the Feinne or Fingalians were attributed to Ossian: his name seems merely a common title, which is ascribed to all the poetic annals of his race.

From these considerations, we seem authorized finally to conclude, that the Ossian of Macpherson and Smith is a mutilated compilation from Highland songs, ascribed indeed to that bard, yet very little likely to be his composition. Out of these they selected the best parts, and rejected such as they thought might discredit the character of Highland antiquity; attributing them to later times, and the ignorant bards of the fifteenth century. Perhaps even the works of Homer himself, which had so many different editions, very considerably varying from each other, were compiled by a somewhat similar process from the ancient Greek songs.

Another question remains to be considered: Whether these songs are the compositions of the Highlands or of Ireland; and, whether Ossian was an Irish or a Caledonian Scot? It is my opinion, that the songs in this collection evidently manifest a connection with Ireland, though their traditional preservation in Scotland has sometimes introduced the name of Scotland in its stead. One of their principal personages is St Patrick, the peculiar apostle of Ireland, which alone seems sufficient to mark their origin (A). If therefore we may reason from a part to the whole, it is just to conclude, that all the other songs preserved in the Highlands relative to the Fingalians are also Irish. They are wholly confined to the western coast of the Highlands, opposite Ireland; and the very traditions of the country themselves acknowledge the Fingalians to be originally Irish. The genealogy of Fingal was there given me as follows: Fion Mac Coul, Mac Trathal, Mac Arfut Riogh Erin, or king of Ireland; thus attributing the origin of his race to the Irish. I am inclined to believe that these notions about Fingal were common to the Scots in the most ancient times, and brought by them from Ireland to Scotland, the hereditary superstition of both races; for, notwithstanding it may appear most probable that Ireland should receive colonies from Scotland than the contrary, we have direct historic evidences that Scotland received them from Ireland; and no bare theoretic probability deserves to be opposed to the positive assertions of history.

With regard to the Erse manuscripts, about which so much has been said, it becomes me to acknowledge,

(A) "The Scots indeed lay claim to the birth of St Patrick, and boast also his burial-place. Camden, edit. Gibson, 1693, pp. 921, 1014. And so also do the Britons, ib. p. 631, 1014; but his life and miracles all agree to attribute it to Ireland. In Gough's edition of Camden, the account of St Patrick is in vol. iii. p. 612, 618. See Patrick, St." that I have never seen enough of them to give any decided opinion: those which I have seen induced me to think they principally owe their existence to Ireland.

"I shall not repeat what others have said to prove the Tingalians Irish; though the connection of Fingal with Ireland has been already warmly asserted.

"But an unnoticed though curious, passage in Camden affords us the most remarkable, and perhaps the most convincing proof, that Fingal is an Irish hero, which demonstrates at least that he was indisputably claimed by the Irish 230 years ago. It is contained in an extract (already mentioned) made by Camden, from an account of the manners of the native Irish, written by one Good, a schoolmaster at Limerick, in 1666. 'They think,' says he, speaking of Ireland and its inhabitants, 'the souls of the deceased are in communion with famous men of those places, of whom they retain many stories and fonnets; as of the giants Fin-Mac-Huyle, Oikir-Mac-Oishin, or Oishin-Mac-Owin; and they say, through illusion, that they often see them.'

"The very material importance of this curious passage, with relation to the present subject, it is unnecessary to urge; for every eye must see it. We also obtain from it new information in respect to the last part of the history of Fingal and his heroes; as it enables us to determine who they were with a precision which must otherwise have been wanting, to complete these remarks on the Highland songs.

"The singular agreement of this passage with the accounts of Ossian which were taught me in Scotland is worthy particular remark; it confirms them even in the most novel and peculiar instances. The Fingalians were generally represented as giants: but the most remarkable occurrence is in the mythologic character attributed by both to Fingal, Ossar, and Ossian. In proof of this, I have to observe, that Mac Nab described Fingal as the Odin of the Scots, and that a song called Urnigh Oshin evidently speaks of him as such. This curious passage represents him exactly in the same character; a hero with whom the spirits of the deceased are in communion, who is their chieftain, and the lord of their feasts. The gods of all the northern nations seem to have been of this class; mighty heroes, esteemed once to have been invincible on earth, though perhaps not ever strictly men, nor yet constantly regarded as giants. Such are Odin, Thor, and the other Teutonic gods; such are Fingal, Ossar, and the rest of the Fingalians among the ancient Scots; such are Hercules, Bacchus, and even Jupiter himself, with all his sons and daughters, among the original Greeks, a people who agreed in many particulars with our own ancestors in northern Europe. The notions entertained about ghosts, as an intermediate order of beings between men and divinities, endowed with some share of power to do evil, is also remarkably congruous with this mythology.

"As Fingal was a divine hero, so Ossian seems to have been a divine bard. Some of the gods of the Totonons were bards in like manner; the god Niord and his wife Skada quarrelled in elegant verse of their own composition; and Odin is the relator of his own Edda. Apollo, the poetic deity of Greece, likewise sung the history of his fellow-deities to men on earth, as well as Orpheus his son. The bards and traditional preservers of songs in Scotland and Ireland have ever been fond of ascribing all ancient poems to this Ossian, and especially those relating to his own race; and from this cause the poems ascribed to Ossian are become so voluminous. The ancient Egyptians had a similar custom of ascribing their works to Hermes: ἀναγραφομένων τὰ σιγῶν τῆς σοφίας ἐπιγραφάται αὐτῷ μυθολογικῶν ἔργων παντα τὰ οἰκεῖα αὐτῷ ἐπιγραφάται εἰσαγόμενοι, says Jamblichus, S. I. c. i. which rendered the Hermetic writings equally voluminous. The Egyptians, who possessed the art of writing, deposited their works in the adyta of their temples; as the Arabians deposited their poems of old in the temple of Mecca: but because the Egyptians affixed to them no author's name, except that of Hermes, to him, as to the Scottish Ossian, almost all the national literature was attributed by religious flattery.

"I sincerely wish, that some gentleman possessed of adequate abilities and acquaintance with the Erse language, would undertake to collect these Ossianic songs in their simple original state; as they undoubtedly contain much curious knowledge, accumulated in the various ages through which they have descended to us, and would probably afford much new information on subjects at present very ill understood. I own, however, that I should rather choose to seek for them in Ireland than in Scotland; but neither country should be unexplored.

"After having thus freely, though I hope not uncandidly, delivered my sentiments on the Ossian of Mr Macpherson, it becomes me to acknowledge myself deeply indebted to it for the pleasure in perusal it has frequently afforded me. I am willing, and indeed happy, thus publicly to declare myself a warm admirer of it as a literary composition. The novelty of its manner, of its ideas, and of the objects it describes, added to the strength and brilliancy of genius which frequently appears in it, have enabled me to read it with more delight, and to return to it more frequently, than almost any other work of modern times. And let it be regarded in what light it may, the praise of elegant selection and composition certainly belongs to its editor. If I had not entertained these opinions of its merit, I should never have taken so much pains to investigate its authenticity; nor indeed can I believe, if the general opinion had not concurred with mine, that the world would ever have wasted so much time in disputing about it."

Since what has now been said concerning the authenticity of the poems of Ossian was written, the same subject has been again brought under discussion, and more keenly and ably agitated than at any former period of the controversy. Among those who have entered the lists in this controversy, Mr Laing the historian appears by far the most powerful opponent of the authenticity of these celebrated poems. In a historical and critical dissertation* on this subject, Mr Laing roundly affirms, that * Hist. of the poems, as ascribed to Ossian, a bard of the third century, are forgeries, and charges Macpherson, as well as Smith, (in our opinion too hastily and rashly) with direct fraud in imposing on the world their own productions as the genuine translations of ancient Gaelic poems. The arguments for the detection of these forgeries are arranged under eight different heads: 1. The Roman History of Britain with which Macpherson has connected the poems by false and incorrect allusions. 2. The traditionary poems in the Highlands refer to the middle OSS

Offian, difficulty or impossibility of preserving poems by oral tradition for a period of 1500 years. 4. The remarkable diversity in the manners of the Highlanders at the period in which Fingal lived, as described by historians, and as they are represented by Offian; and the contradiction of great refinement at an early age and extreme barbarism in a future age, are considered by Mr Laing as strong and decisive proofs of forgery. 5. From tracing the origin of the poems to other works of Macpherfon, particularly to an epic poem entitled the Highlander, published at Edinburgh in 1758, which, being unsuccessful, appeared afterwards as fragments of ancient poetry, Mr Laing thinks another proof of detection is derived. 6. A sixth source of detection, in his opinion, may be traced to the imitation of the classics, literature, and other writings. 7. Mr Laing affords that the specimens of the original produced by Macpherfon were either written or translated into Erse from the English original, by the supposed translator himself. 8. From the ambiguous language which Macpherfon seems to have employed at different times during the progress of the numerous editions of the poems, Mr Laing infers a distinct avowal of fraud. But for the illustration of the arguments now noticed we must refer the reader to the dissertation itself.

It was not to be expected that charges so formally adduced, and so keenly supported, would pass altogether unnoticed by the admirers of the poems of Offian, or the believers in their authenticity. Accordingly, we find that Mr Laing's arguments have been combated by different writers with various success. Among the works on this side of the question which have fallen in our way, the Essay on the Authenticity of the Poems of Offian by the Rev. Dr Graham, holds the most respectable place. But our limits absolutely preclude us even from stating his arguments. We refer therefore to the work itself which, the reader will not dislike to find, is written with some degree of elegance, and, what is not usual in controversy, with a great degree of temper and moderation. The reader who wishes to pursue this investigation, may consult also a Treatise on the same subject by Mr Macdonald, the Report on Offian by a Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland; and the Gaelic scholar has now an opportunity of perusing the Originals, which have been published by Sir John Sinclair.