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

IvT niEFACE.
pnricliecl ^Tilh innamerable books, iinil tianKform-
ed it gradually into the present Italian. Almost'
every language in Europe has, from similar cau-
ses, in a greater or less degree, undergone the
game mcitamorphosis. The English itself, is a
farrago of as many languages as there have been
invaders. So that, from the ancient British, it is
become a mixture of Saxon, Teutonic, Dutch,
Banish, Norn)an, and modern French, interlard-
ed with Lat>.i and Greek. The Welch continuing
rm unmixed people, kept their original speech.
So have the inhabitants of the Highlands and He-
brides: unconquered, and free from the influx of
strangers, their language, for ages, continued the
same.
But the most remarkable of Mr. Laing's asser-
tions, is an affirmation that there never was s^
Druid in Scotland; for the refutation of this as-
sertion, it is not necessary to have recourse to the
legends of fabulous historians; the name Druid
is of Celtic origin; the traditional knowledge of
that order is universal, and the Druidical temples,
the circle of large stones placed on one end, with
a flat one in the middle, every where meet the tra-
Teller, in his excursions through the Higlilands.
"VVe need ojily refer Mr. Laing to a very perfect
one, which is to be seen in the pleasure grounds
of Lord Breadalbaue, at Taymouth. Against
this direct evidence, our author's only ground
for his assertion is, that Tacitus mijikes^no ex-