Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

128 T E M O R A: Book VL
words rofe, at length, in the midft ; the people
Ihrunk backward as he Ipoke *.
Where
* I owe the firO: paragraph of the following note to the fame
pen.
The abashed behaviour of the army of Fingal proceeds ra-
ther from fliame than fear. The king was not of a tyrannical
difpofuion : He, as he profefTes himfelf in the fifth book, ne-
fuer nji-as a dreadful form, in their prefence, darkened into 'wrath.
His 'voice luas no thunder to their ears : his eye fent forth no death.
The firft ages of fociety are not the times of arbitrary power.
As the wants of mankind are few, they retain their indepen-
drnce. It Is an advanced Hate of civilization that moulds the
mind to that fubmiffion to government, of which ambitious
magillrates take advantage, and raife themfelves into abfolute
power.
It is a vulgar error, that the common Highlanders lived, in
abjefl flavery, under their chiefs. Their high ideas of, and
attachment to, the heads of their families, probably, led the
unintelligent into this miftake. When the honour of the
tribe was concerned, the commands of the chief were obeyed,
without reliriftion : but, if individuals were opprelTed, they
threw themfelves into the arms of a neighbouring clan, af-
fumcd a new name, and were encouraged and protefted. The
fear of this defertion, no doubt, made the chiefs cautious in
their government. As their confequence, in the eyes ofothersj
was in proportion to the number of their people, they took
care to avoid every thing that tended to diminiih it.
Jt was but very lately that the authority of the laws extended
to the Highlands. Before that time the clans were governed,
in civil affairs, not by the verbal commands of the chief, but
by what they called Clechda, or the traditional precedents of
their anceilors. When difierences happened between indi-
viduals, fome of the oldeft men in the tribe were chofen
umpires between the parties, to decide according to the
Clechda. The chief interpofed his authority, and, invariably,
enforced the decifion. In their wars, which were frequent,
on