Ossian Collection > Gaelic bards

DUGULD BUCHINSN,
DuGALD Buchanan, a man of somewhat remarkable
character, one of the earliest, and still the most esteemed
of the Gaelic writers of Sacred Poetry, was born in
Strathtyre, in the parish of Balquhidder, Perthshire, in
in the year, 1716. We are told by himself that both his
parents w^ere religious, but especially his mother, who
taught him to pray as soon as he could speak ; and strove
earnestly to eugraft on his young mind those strict
principles of doctrinal piety by which her own life w^as
actuated. But she died w^hen he was only six years of
age, and for twenty years after he underwent a severe
moral discipline, in vain attempts to get rid of religious
convictions altogether, or in equally useless endeavours to
reconcile his heart to the stern form in which the
Christian faith seems to have been presented to him. Of
this momentous period of his life he has left a long and
elaborate account, written in English, in a good style —
sometimes with considerable force, and displaying oc-
casional marks of his imaginative talent. From it we
learn that when still quite young he learned to curse and
swear, that he became very loose and immoral in his
habits, and associated much wdth bad company ; that on
these accounts he suffered frequently and severely from
the reproaches of conscience, and a remorseful sense of
guilt, until finally, and by slow degrees, he attained unto
the repose of steadfast principle and devout faith. The
book closes with a dedication of himself to God, which
the author solemnly signs. Its concluding words are as
follows : — " Now, Lord, let the dedication of myself to
thee, and my accepting of thee as my God in Christ, and
my being the subj(;ct of thy spiritual work, be not like
the day that is past and cannot be recalled again, — let it
be ratified in heaven and I will sign it upon earth.
DUGALD BUCHANAN."