Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

INTRODUCTION.
the Son of Fingal, or of a learned Scot
of the eighteenth century.
Were this merely a question in which
national vanity was concerned, it is
admitted that it is a matter of little
importance, whether this celebrated
poetry is to be attributed to one of our
countrymen, who lived in the third, or
in the eighteenth, century. It is con-
ceived, however, that the question in-
volves much more important consider-
ations : it is presumed, that the gene-
ral history of literature, and even that
of the human mind itself, are deeply
interested in its investigation.
If, on the one hand, it be found,
that the poems ascribed to Ossian were
composed fifteen hundred years ago, in
a language and dialect which are still
understood and spoken in the High-