Ossian Collection > Critical dissertation on the poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

xxxiv A DISSERTATION.
tives of that Illand. In order to do this effeiSlually, they found it
neceffary, to rejedt.the genuine poems, as every line was pregnant
with proofs of their Scotch original, and to drefs up a fable, on the
fame fubj eft, in their own language. So ill qualified, however, were
their bards to cftedluate this change, that amidfl all their defires to
make the Fiona Iriihmen, they every now and then call SiolAlhin. It
was, probably, after a fucceffion of ibme generations, that the
bards had effrontery enough to eftablifli an Irifli genealogy for Fion,
and deduce him from the Milefian race of kings. In fome of the
oldeft Iridi poems, on the fubjed, the great-grand-father of Fion is'
made a Scandinavian j and his heroes are often called Siol Lochlin
NA BF.UM; /. e. the race of Lochlin of ivounds. The only poem
that runs up the family of Fion to Nuades Niveus, king of Ireland, is
evidently not above a hundred and fifty years old j for, if I miftakc
not, it mentions the Earl of Tyrone, fo famous in Elizabeth's time.
This fubjeft, perhaps, is purfued further than it deferves j
but, a difcuffion of the pretenfions of Ireland to Offian, was become
in fome ineaiure neceffary. If the Irifli poems, concerning the Fi-
ona, (hould appear ridiculous, it' is but juftice to obferve, that they
are fcarcely more fo than the poems of other nations, at that period.
On other fubjecfls, the bards of Ireland have difplayed a genius worthy
of any age or nation. It was, alone, in matters of antiquity, that
they were monftrous in their fables. Their love-fonnets, and their
elegies on the death of perfons worthy or renowned, abound with
•fuch beautiful fimplicity of fentiment, and wild harmony of num-
bers, that they become more than an attonement for their errors, in
every other fpecies of poetry. But the beauty of thefe pieces, depend
fo much on a certain ciiriofa felicitas of expreffion in the original,
that they mufc appear much to difad vantage in another language.
CON-