Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

14 Diasertafion on
positions of those times trivial and puerile to tlie
las-t degree. But let it be allowed, that amidst all
the untoward circumstances of the age, a genius
flight arise ; it is not easy to determine what
could induce him to allude to the Roman times.
We find no fact to favour any designs which could
be entertained by any man who lived in the
^tteenth century.
The strongest objection to the antiquity of the
poems now given to the public under the name of
Ossian, is the improbability of their being handed
down by tradition through so many centuries.
Ages of barbarism, some will say, could not prO'
duce poems abounding with the disinterested anc*
generous sentiments so conspicuous in the compo-
sitions of Ossian ; and could these ages produce
tliem, it is impossible but they must be lost, or
altogether corrupted, in a long succession of bii"
5arous generations.
Those objections naturally suggest themselvi*v
io men unacquainted with the ancient state of the
northern parts of Britain. The bards, who wera
an inferior order of the Druids, did not share their
b.id fortune. They were spared by the victorious
king, as it was through their means only he could
hope for immortality to his fame. They attended
liim in the camp, and contributed to establish his
power by their songs. His great actions were
magnified, and the populace, who had no ability to
examine into his character narrowly, were dazzled
with his fame in the rhymes of the bards. In the
mean time, men assumed sentiments that are rarely
to be met with in an age of barbarism. The bards,
who were originally the disciples of the Druids,
had their minds opened, and their ideas enlarged,
by being initiated in the learning of that cele-
brated order. They could form a perfect hero ii\
tlieir own minds, and ascrilje that character to
their prince. The inferior clsiofs made this ideal