Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

Book III. FINGAL. 223
where no Coal is to be found, and few Provifions can be raifed,
there is ftill lefs for that of the Anvil and Shuttle. As the High-
landers were, upon thefe Accounts, excluded from extenfive Agri-
culture and Manufadure alike, every Family raifed juft as much
Grain, and made as much Raiment, as fufliced for itfelf j and
Nature, whom Art cannot force, deftined them for the Life of
Shepherds. Hence they had not that Excefs of Induftry which
reduces Man to a Machine, nor that Want of it, which finks him
into a Rank of Animals below his own.
They lived in Villages built in Vallies, and by the Sides of
Rivers. At two Seafons of the Year they were bufy j the one ia
the End of Spring and Beginning of Summer, when they put the
Plough in the little Land they had capable of receiving it, fowed
their Grain, and laid in their Provifion of Turf for the Winter's
Fewel J the other jufl before Winter, when they reaped their
Harveft : the reft of the Year was all their own, for Amufement
or for War. If not engaged in War, they indulged themfelves in
the moft delicious of all Pleafures, to Men in a cold Climate,
and a romantic Country, the Enjoyment of the Sun, and of the
Summer- Views of Nature ; never in the Houfe during the Day,
even fleeping often at Night in the open Air, among the Moun-
tains and Woods. They fpent the Winter in the Chafe, while
the Sun was up ; and, in the Evening, affembling round a com-
mon Fire, they entertained themfelves with the Song, the Tale,
and the Dance : but they were ignorant of fitting Days and Nights
at Games of Skill or Hazard ; Amufements which keep the Body
in Inadlion, and the Mind in a State of vicious Adlivity.
The