Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

16 Dissertation on
••ession of tliese bards, the poems concerning tha
ancestors of the family were handed down from gen-
eration to generation; they were repeated to the
whole clan on solemn occasions, and always alluded
to in the new compositions of the bards. This cus-
tom came down to near our own times; and after
the bards were discontinued, a great number in a
clan retained by memory, or committed to writing,
their compositions, and founded the antiquity of their
families on the authority of their poems.
The use of letters was not known in the north
of Europe till long after the institution of the bards :
the records of the families of their patrons, their
own, and more ancient poems, were handed down
bv tradition. Their poetical compositions were
admirably contrived for that purpose. They were
adapted to music; and the most perfect harmony was
observed. Each verse was so connected with those
which preceded or followed it, that if one line had
been remembered in a stanza, it was almost impossi-
ble to forget the rest. The cadences followed in so
natural a gradation, and the words were so adapted
to the common turn of the voice, after it is raised
to a certain key, that it was almost impossible, from
R similarity of sound, to substitute one word for
another. This excellence 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
sense, or weaken the expression. The numerous
flexions of consonants, and variatica in declension,
make the language very copious.
The descendants of the Celtse, who inhabitej
Britain and its isles, were not singular in this method
of preserving the most precious monuments of tlieit
nation. The ancient laws of the Greeks were couched
in verse, and handed down by tradition. The Spar-
luns, through a long habit, became so fond of this
custom, that they would never allow their laws to
be committed to writing. The actions of great men,