Ossian Collection > Galic antiquities

AUTHENTICITY OF OSSIAN's POEMS. S 9
The manners uniformly relate to a very early ftage of fociety.
Hunting was dill the chief occupation ; and pafturage was only
beginning to be attended to. To any period more advanced than
this, there is no hint, no allufion throughout the poems. No tra-
ces of agriculture or commerce, no mention of cities, very little
of arts, except fuch as were abfolutely neceffary, and Mill lefs of
fciences, are there to be met with. The circle of ideas, as corre-
fponds with an early aera, is very circumfcribed.
That diftinction of ranks which arifes from the eftablifhment
of property and advancement of fociety is in thefe poems nowhere
to be found. The firft heroes prepare their own repafts, and, in-
difcriminately, condefcend to the mofl menial offices. Valour in
the men, and beauty in the women, hold generally the firft rank
of praife ; and the virtues of the mind, though by no means over-
looked, are often mentioned but as fecondary qualifications. Lef-
fer contentions arife from caufes frequently flight, but always na-
tural. A rivalfhip in love, an omiflion at a feaft, or an affront at
a tournament, prove, not feldom, the foundation of a deadly quar-
rel between fingle heroes. And the wars between whole tribes are
carried on, not to enlarge their territory ; but to revenge, perhaps,
the killing of a few deer on their mountains ; the carrying off a few
arms, the chief furniture of their halls ; or the taking forcibly a-
way one of their women. And as their occupation was hunting
and war, fo the chief object of their ambition and purfuit was to
obtain, on thefe accounts, an immortality of fame in the fong of
the bard. Tnis obtained, they thought themfelves fecure of that
immortality of happinefs, which they looked for in their lowly pa-
radife.
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