Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

inSbl.RTATION, kc. 47
of their respective nations. Good historians
however, rose very early amongst them, and
transmitted, with lustre, their great actions to
posterity. It is to them that they owe that
unrivalled fame they now enjoy, while the
great actions of other nations are involved in
fables, or lost in obscurity. The Celtic na-
tions afford a striking instance of this kind.
They, though once the masters of Europe from
the mouth of the river Oby, in Russia, to Cape
Finisterre, the western point of Gallicia, in
Spain, are very iittle mentioned in history.
They trusted their fame to tradition and the
songs of their bards, which, by the vicissitude
of human affairs, are long since lost. Their
ancient language is the only moiuunent that re-
mains of them ; and the traces of it being
found in places so widely distant from each
other, serves only to show the extent of their
ancient power, but throws very little light on
their history.
Of all the Celtic nations, that \Ahich pos-
sessed old Gaul is the most renowned : not
perhaps on account of worth superior to the
rest, but for thtir wars with a people who had
historians to transmit the fame of their ene-
mies, as well as their own, to posterity. Bri-
tain was first peopled by them, according to
tlie testimony of the best authors ; its situation
in respect to Gaul makes the opinion proba-
ble ; but what puts it beyond all dispute, is,
that the same customs and language prevailed
among the inhabitants of both in the days of
Julius Caesar.
The colony from Gaul possessed themselves,
at first, of that part of Britain which was next
to their own country ; and spreading north>
ward by degrees, as they increased in numbers,
peopled the whole island. Some adventurers