Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

36 PREFACE.
Times : Of thefe the old Scripture, Homer, and OJian, will re-
main the Patterns of Style and Sublimity to every fucceeding
Generation.
*' That the Bards could not read more than the reft of their
" Countrymen, it is reafonable to fuppofe j becaufe, if they
" had read, they could probably have written ; and how high
"■ their Compofitions may reafonably be rated, an Inquirer may
" beft judge by confidering what Stores of Imagery, what
" Principles of Ratiocination, what Comprehenfion of Know-
** ledge, and what Delicacy of Elocution he has known any
" Man attain who cannot read. The State of the Bards was
" yet more hopelefs. He that cannot read, may now converfe
** with thofe that can j but the Bard was a Barbarian among
** Barbarians, who, knowing nothing himfelf, lived with others
" that knew no more/'
That the Bards could neither write nor read, till fuch Time
as the Ufe of Letters was introduced with the Chriftian Reli-
gion, we are here willing to allow * : That therefore their
Compofitions and Elocution could arrive at no Degree of Per-
fedion, is no juft Confequence. The ancient Scots were un-
doubtedly
* Though I have granted that the Bards might not know the Ufe of Letters till the
Introduflion of Chriftianity, the contrary might be eafily proved. We learn from Cafar,
that the Druids of Gaul, upon many Occafions, made Ufe of the Greek Alphabet. Now
as thefe, according to the fame noble Author, derived their Difcipline from Britain, it is
rooft likely the latter could not be ignorant of the Greek Letters, which in Time degene^
f^ted into the old Britijh Charafters, thefe having a great Affinity in Make to the Greek,
as may be feen in Sir Jamti Wai-eh Antiquities of helanJ, tranflated by Walter Htarisy
Efq. Chap. UL p. 22.