Ossian Collection > Remarks on Dr. Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides

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As it now appears, that many of our
Seannachles were alfo Bards, it may natu-
rally be fuppofed, that much of our ancient
hiftory was in verfe. The fame praQice
obtained in all other nations, in the early
ages, and in the like circumftances. Ac-
cordingly, many of our poems confift of
defcriptions of battles, deaths of heroes,
and concife narratives of other hiftorical
fads.
Page 260, he fays, " Whether the man
of talk was a hiftorian, whofe ofEce was
to tell truth, or a ftory-teller, like thofe
which were in the laft century, and per-
haps are now among the Irijh^ whofe trade
was only to amufe, it now would be vain
to inquire.'* It would be far from njain
to make this inqidry, were it neceflary;
but the matter has been already cleared
up. The cafe is fufficiently plain; but
the Do(^or generally creates doubts where
there