Ossian Collection > Fragments of ancient poetry

P R E F A C E.
THE public may depend on the
following fragments as genuine
remains ofancientScottifli poetry. The
date of their compolition cannot be ex-
actly afcertained. Tradition, in the
country where they were written, refers
them to an aeraof the moft remote anti-
quity: and this tradition is fupported by
the fpirit and ftrainof the poems them-
felves ; which abound with thofe
ideas, and paint thofe manners, that
belong to the moft early ftate of fo-
ciety. The didion too, in the origi-
nal, is very obfolete ; and differs wide-
ly from the ftyle of fuch poems as have
been written in the fame language two
or three centuries ago. They were cer-
tainly compofed before the eftablifh-
A 2 ment