Ossian Collection > Original collection of the poems of Ossian, Orrann, Ulin, and other bards, who flourished in the same age

PREFACE. xxxiii
ancient Highlanders, let us not fill the vacuity with
Ossian. If we have not searched the Magellanic
regions, let us, however, forbear to people them
with Patagons."
Dr. Samuel Johnson was the first, end will
probably be the last, that travelled in search of
records which he could not read, and criticised a
language of which he never understood a syllable.
However, we are confident that the public in ge-
neral are too impartial to allow themselves to be
deceived by the misrepresentations of one who
was too ungenerous to judge with candour, and
too ignorant to discover a fraud, if any such had
been intended. The absurdity is so gross, that
the public are forced, however reluctantly, to be-
lieve that these poems are not fictitious, but in
reality an emblem of the customs and manners of
the Caledonians at that period.
Diodorus Siculus (lib. v.) reports of the Celtic,
that, though warlike, they were upright in their
dealings, and far removed from deceit and du-
plicity. Caesar says {De Belto Africo), the Gauls
are of an open temper, not at all insidious; and in
fight they rely on valour, not on stratagem; and
though cruel to their enemies, yet Pomponius
Mela (lib. iii.) observes, that they were kind and
compassionate to the supplicant and imfortunate.
Strabo describes the Gauls (lib. iv.) as studious of
war, and of great alacrity in fighting; otherwise,
an innocent people, altogether void of malignity.