Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

92 DISSERTATION, Jtc.
the pretrnded Hibernian extract of the Scotch
nation. Ignorant chronicle writers, strangers
to the ancient language of their countrj', pre-
served only from fulling to the ground so im-
probable a story.
This subject, perhaps, is pursued farthe-
than it deserves ; but a discussion of the pre-
tensions of Ireland was become in some mea-
sure necessary. If the Irish poems, concern-
ing the Fiona, should appear ridiculous, it is
but justice to observe, that they are scarcely
more so than the poems of other nations at
that period. On other subjects, the bards of
Ireland have displayed a genius for poetry.
It was alone in matters of antiquity that they
were monstrous in their fables. Their love-
sonnets, and their elegies on the death of persons
worthy or renowned, abound with simplicity,
and a wild harmony of numbers. They be-
come more than an atonement for their errors,
in every other species of poetry. But the
beauty of these species depends so much on a
.ertain curiosa felicitas of expression in the ori-
ginal, that they must appear much to disad-
vantage in another language.