Ossian Collection > Critical dissertation on the poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

vl A D I S S E R^T A T I O N.
caters. As the Piifls lived in a country fo dihrerent in its nature
from that pollefled by the Scots, fo their national charader fuffered
a material change. Unobflrudted by mountains, or lakes, their
communication v/ith one another was free and frequent. Society,
therefore, became fooner eflabliihed among them, than among the
Scots, and, confequently, they were much fooner governed by civil
magiftrates and laws. This, at lalt, produced fo great a difference
in the manners of the two nations, that they began to forpet their,
common origin, and almoft continual quarrels and animofitics fub-
fifted between them. Thefe animofities, after fome ages, ended in
the fubverfion of the Pidtifli kingdom, but not in the total extirpa-
tion of the nation, according to mofl of the Scotch writers, who
feemed to think it more for the honour of their countrymen to
annihilate, than reduce a rival people under their obedience. It is
certain, however, that the very name of the Pidls was lofl, and
thofe that remained were fo compleatly incorporated with their
conquerors, that they foon loft all memory of their own origin. —
The end of the Piclifii government is placed fo near that period,
to which authentic annals reach, that it is matter of wonder, that
we have no monuments of their language or hiftory remaining.
This favours the fyfleni I have laid down. Had they originally
been of a different race from the Scots, their language of courfe
would be different. The contrary is the cafe. The names of places
in the Piftifh dominions, and the very names of their kings, which
are handed down to us, are of Galic original, which is a convincing
proof, that the two nations were, of old, one and the fame, and
only divided into two governments, by the effedt which their fitua-
tionjiad upon the genius of the people.
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