Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

144 ^ CRITICAL DISSERTATIOK
Though Julius Caefar, In his account of
Gaul, does not exprefsly mention the bards,
yet it is plain, that under the title of
Druids, he comprehends that whole col-
lege or order j of which the bards, who,
it is probable,, were the difciples of the
Druids, undoubtedly made a part. It de-
ferves remark, that, according to his ac-
count, the Druidical inftitution firft took
rife in Britain, and pafled from thence into
Gaul J fo that they who afpired to be
thorough mafters of that learning were wont
to refort to Britain. He adds too, that
fuch as were to be initiated among the
Druids, were obliged to commit to their
memory a great number of verfcs, infomuch
that fome employed twenty years in this
courfe of education j and that they did not
think It lawful to record thefe poems in
writing, but facredly handed them down by
tradition from race to race *.
So ftrong was the attachment of the Cel-
tic nations to their poetry and their bards,
tnat, amidft all the changes of their go-
vernment and manners, even long after the
limia natnrnepanderc conabantur. Inter hos, Druidcc
ingeniis celfiores, ut aii6loritas PythagorjE decrevir,
fodalitiis adftridti confortiis, qucftionibus altaruni
occultarumque rerum eretfti funt; et dcfpandlcs hii-
inana pronuntiarunt animas immortalcs. Amm. Alar-
ccllinus, 1. 15. cap. 9.
* Vid. Csefar dc Uello Gall. lib. 6.