Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

THE JERA OF OSSIAN. 67
cellence is' peculiar to the Celtic tongue,
and is perhaps to be met with in no other
language. Nor does this choice of words
clog the fenfe, or weaken the expreflion.
The numerous fleftions of confonants, and
variation in declenfion, make the language
%'erv' copious.
The defcendants of the Celtse, who in-
habited Britain and its ifles, were not An-
gular in this method of preferving the
moft precious monuments of their nation.
The ancient laws of the Greeks were
couched in verfe, and handed down by tra-
dition. The Spartans, through a long ha-
bit, became fo fond of this cuftom, that
they would never allow their laws to be
committed to writing. The aftions of great
men, and the euiogiums of kings and he-
roes, weie preferved in the fame manner.
All the hii^orical monuments of the old
Germans were comprehended in their an-
cient fongs *; which were either hymns to
their gods, or elegies in praife of their he-
roes, and were intended to perpetuate the
great events in their nation, which were
carefully interwoven with them. This fpe-
cies of compolltlon was not committed to
writing, but delivered by oral tradition f .
The care they took to have the poems
• Tacitus de Mor. Germ.
' .'lobe de la Bletcne Remcrjuesfur la Gennainc.