Ossian Collection > Authenticity of the poems of Ossian

31
The song of the bards commencing with —
"Taom, a Charuinn, taom do shruth ;
'A n aoil)hueas an dingli, sinbhaii sios;
Theich coigrich, aV airde guth,
Cha-n f haicear an stend— each 's an t-sliabh" —
follows, and is very beautiful ; but I cannot think of
inflicting any more of these quotations on you. Aftei*
the victory of Lena, the words of Cuchullin to Fingal,
who is trying to comfort him, are — " Fingal, it was not
thus that thou sawest me in thy land, when the war-
riors of the world fled from our arms."
In Ireland afterwards, too, when Cairbre, in com-
passing the destruction of Oscar, the son of Ossian,
sends his bard 011a to invite him to the feast, at which
he purposes to kill him ; he directs the bard, among
other flattering compliments, to say that they had
heard of his mighty and far-famed deeds on the banks
of the Carun.
Now, when we read of all this, in connection with
the fact that Antoninus, nicknamed Caracalla, the son
of the Emperor Severus, was the general who com-
manded in Britain in the early part of the third cen-
tury, I think we are shut up to the conclusion that the
period above named is the correct one. Speaking of
this very subject, and of the terrible struggle carried
on between the Eomans and Caledonians at this
period, under the bloody order of Severus, to have
them (the Caledonians) not subdued, but extirpated,
Gibbon says : — " Could we with safety indulge the
pleasing supposition that Fingal lived and Ossian sung,
the striking contrast of the situation and manners of
the contending nations might amuse a philosoj)hic
mind. The parallel would be little to the advantage
of the more civilized people, if we compared the unre-
lenting revenge of Severus with the generous clemency
of Fingal — ^the timid and brutal cruelty of CaracaUa
with the bravery and tenderness, the elegant genius of
Ossian — the mercenary chiefs who, from motives of
fear or interest, served under the Imperial standard,
with the free-born warriors who started to arms at the
voice of the king of Morven — if, in a word, we con-
templated the untutored Caledonians, glowing with
the warm virtues of nature, and the degenerate
Eomans, polluted with the mean vices of wealth and
slavery."
Having now brought my subject to a close, let me