Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

32 ON THE AUTHENTICITY
doubt, their science was contained, to me-
mory.
We have here, it must be acknowledged,
a very respectable view afforded us of the
philosophy of the Druids, by an author,
whom all will allow to have been a compe-
tent judge.
Though this hierarchy had been extermi-
nated in Caledonia, according to tradition,
somewhat prior to the period of Ossian, and,
in England, according to Tacitus, somewhat
earlier still, yet so recently had their cata-
strophe taken place, that Ossian might have
had a full opportunity of acquiring the
knowledge which they taught ; or, at least,
that portion of it which was usually commu-
nicated to the bards. Persons of the high-
est rank accounted it honourable to be
initiated in the mysteries of the Druids.*
* Docait multa noUUssmos gentis, clam et diu, vicenis
annis, in specu et abditis sultibus. — Pompon. Mela. lib. iiù
c. 1.