Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

DISSERTATION
CONCERNINQ
THE POEMS OF OSSIAN.
Thf; history of tliose nations who originally pos-
se>s=ed the north of Europe, is loss known than
their manners. Destitute of the use of letters,
they themselves had not the means of transmitting
their gi-eat actions to remote posterity. Foreign
writers saw them only at a distance, and described
them as they found them. The vanity of the Ro-
mans induced them to consider the nations beyond
the pale of their empire as barbarians, and conse-
quently their history unworthy of being investi-
gated. Their manners and singular character were
matters of curiosity, as they committed them to
record. Some men, otherwise of great merit,
among ourselves, give in to confined ideas on this
subject. Having early imbibed their idea of ex-
alted manners from the Greek and Roman writers,
they scarcely ever afterwards have the fortitude to
allow any dignity of character to any nation desti-
tute of the use of letters.
Without derogating from the fame of Greece
and Rome, we may consider antiquity bevond the
pale of their empire worthy of some attention.
The nobler passions of the mind never shoot forth
n)ore free and unrestrained than in the times we
rail barbarous. That iiregxilar manner of life and
those manly pursuits from which barbarity takes it»
name, are highly favourable to a strength of mind
unknown in polished times. In advanced society the
characters of men are more uniform and disguised.