Ossian Collection > Authenticity of the poems of Ossian

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convinced that the asylum obtained, in a later age, for
learning and religion in the island of lona was in con-
nection with a civilization the heroic age of which had
passed away.
Indeed, the saddened spirit of Ossian in his old age,
as often expressed in the poems, seems to have been
deepened, if not wholly induced, by the knowledge
that the glory of his line had departed — probably
owing to exhausting w^ars with the Romans, the Danes,
and Irish. Roinne, his youngest brother, had fallen
in the war of Lena ; E''illan, his next brother, and Os-
car his only son, both in their youth, in the war of
Tighmora; so that when Fingal, after that, the last
of his fields, with great ceremony, in presence of
the Caledonian army, put the sword of Treunmor into
his hand, he was the only survivor of his race, after
his father.
"C uin a ghluais eas am bròn o Mhoir blieinn ?
Thiiit, o am gu am, mo chlann ;
Tha Fionnghal an deiieadh de' shiol.
Mo chliii a' siòladh sìos o luaidh,
Bithidh 'm aois-sa fo thruaigh gun chairdibli,
Mar nial de cheò 'am thalla fein.
Cha chluinn mi tilleadh o' bheinn mhae,
'Am meadhon mòrchuis is smachd airme,
Tuiteadh deòir o ghaisgich Mhor bheinn ;
Cha 'n èirich Oscar òg u chaoidh."
This said Fingal, when lamenting the death of his
grandson, the gallant Oscar, who had been treacher-
ously entrapped and slain by the bloody Cairbre.
Having thus disposed of the objections to the compo-
sition of these poems, I shall now proceed to examine
the objections to their transmission through so many
ages. I have already quoted Ossian, to show the esti-
mation in which the bards were held as the recorders
of passing events, and will have to draw on him again,
to show the esteem in which they were held as the
preservers of whatever was valuable in the annals of
the race.
" Tha solus mo chleibh-sa fo smal
Le gniomh 'raibh cas mo bhnithar,
Cha chuir baird foun air mo chliu ;
Their iadsan,— Bha Cathmor treun,
Ach bha 'bheum air taobh Chairbre,
Theid iadsan thar m' uaimh gun leus;
Clia chluinnear mo chliii a chaodh,"
Said Cathmor, wdicn moralizing on the anomalous
position he occupied, as a man of generous and brave
spirit, fighting on the side of his wicked brother.
AVhat the press does for the literature of our day,