Ossian Collection > Fragments of ancient poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Galic or Erse language

PREFACE.
THE public may depend on ther
following fragments as genuine
remains of ancient Scottifli poetry. The
date of their compofition cannot be ex-
adiy afceitained. Tradition, in the
country where they were written, refers
them to an aera of the moft remote an^
tivquity :. and this tradition is fupporteJ
by the fpirit and ftrain of the jx)ems
themfelves ; which abound with thofe
ideas, and paint thofe manners, that
belong to the moft early ftate of fo-
ciety. The diction too, in the origi-^
nal, is very obfolete; and diifcrs wide-^
ly from the ftyle of fiich poems as have
been written in the fame language two
or three centuries ago. They were cer-
tainly compofed before the cftablifh-
mcnt