Ossian Collection > Thoughts on the origin and descent of the Gael

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lation, which naturally diverging from the cen-
tral point of original situation, would still em-
brace a wider circle, and, like a flowing tide,
move in all directions, covering the earth's sur-
face, wherever it was not opposed by obstacles
sufficient to divert or check its progress.
To trace the migrations of the earliest inhabi-
tants of the globe, would be a vain attempt. It
is admitted, that the origin of even the Greeks
and Romans, although the most renowned nations
of antiquity, is involved in impenetrable obscu-
rity.
It is now agreed among philosophers, that in
scientific inquiries truth is to be ascertained by
facts and experiments alone, and that conjecture,
hypothesis, and speculative opinions, however
plausible and ingenious, are to be rejected as un-
wary guides, ever liable to delusion and error.
Prejudices and prepossessions too are to be cau-
tiously guarded against, and beheld with a jealous
eye, as at enmity with truth. In the present
object of inquiry, we think ourselves bound to
pay respect to matters of fact alone. To this
source of information we mean to resort, for the
ascertainment of truth regarding a people whose
origin and descent form the principal object of
the present inquiry.
The best informed Greek authors agree, that
the Pelasgi were ancient inhabitants, not only of
Greece, but of Thessaly, which fom them re-
ceived the name of Pelasgia : They were also