Ossian Collection > Fingal

iv A DISSERTATION concerning the
of the ancients. Their pretended intercourfe with heaven, their
magic and divination were the lame. The knowledge of the Druids
in n.itural caufes, and the properties of certain things, the fruit of
the experiments of ages gained them a mighty reputation among the
people. The efteem of the populace foon increafed into a venera-
tion for the order; which a cuninng and ambitious tribe of men
took care to improve, to fuch a degree, that they, in a manner, in-
grofled the management of civil, as well as religious, matters. It is
generally allowed that they did not abufe this extraordinary power;
the preferving their charailer of fanftity was fo eflential to their in-
fluence, that they never broke out into violence or opprefTion. The
chiefs were allowed to execute the laws, but the legiflative power
Cxi 1. 6. '^'^s entirely in the hands of the Druids. It was by their authority
that the tribes were united, in times of the greateft danger, under one
Fer-gu- head. This temporary king, or Vergobretus, was chofen by them,
vnntohcl'e '^"'^ generally laid down his office at the end of the war. Thefe
priefls enjoyed long this extraordinaiy privilege among the Celtic
nations who lay beyond the pale of the Roman empire. It was in
the beginning of the fecond century that their power among the Ca-
ledonians begun to decline. The poems that celebrate Trathal and
Cormac, anceftors to Fingal, are full of particulars concerning the
fall of the Druids, v/hich account for the total iilence concerning
their religion in the poems that are now given to the public.
The continual wars of the Caledonians againil the Romans hin-
dered the nobility from initiating themfelvcs, as the cuflom for-
merly was, into the order of the Druids. The precepts of their
religion were confined to a k\v, and were not much attended to by a
people inured to war. Tke Vergobretus, or chief magiftrate, was
chofen without the concurrence of the hierarchy, or continued in
Iv's office againil their will. Continual power firengthened his in-
tercft