Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

38 PREFACE.
proper Mailers, the befl Productions of thofe that went before :
A clofe Application of many Years ftored their Minds with a
vafl Fund of Thought and Imagery j and an intimate Acquaint-
ance with the moft elegant Authors muft have made them per-
fedl in their Mother Tongue *. That Time was given to en-
larging the Ideas and acquiring Knowledge, which we fpend in
the Study of the dead and modern Languages. Knowing fo
much by Heart was another apparent Advantage, as it muft
have ftruck their Imaginations more lively than the faint Re-
membrance of Things from Books. All this confidered, it is
not furprifing they fliould fing in a Strain Worthy the Notice of
Pofterity : The cotemporary Geniufes of Rome itfelf feem to
have admired their heroic Poetry. Thus Lucan.
Vos quoque qui fortes anmos, helloqiie peretnptos,
Laiidibus in longum Votes diffiinditis csvum
Flurima Jecuri fudijUs Carmina Bardi.
Phar. L. I.
" There has been lately in the IJlands one of thofe illiterate
" Poets,
* Though Writing muft be owned a great Help in acquiring a thorough Knowledge of
the Arts and Sciences, yet Men may obtain fome Degree of Perfeftion without it. The
Mexicans, before the Arrival of the Spaniards, made Landfcapes and other Imitations of
Nature with Feathers, fo artfully mixed as to beftow both Life and Colouring ; of which
Sort of Work, there were Inftances no lefs extraordinary for Patience than for Skill. —
They were not ignorant either of Mufic or Poetry ; and one of their capital Amufements
■was Songs fet to Mufic, upon the Atchievements of their Kings and Anceftors. Notwith-
ftanding, the Art of Writing was no farther advanced than the ufing Figures compofed of
painted Feathers, by which they made a Shift to communicate fome fimple Thoughts ;
and in this Manner was Montezuma informed of the Spanip Invafion,