Ossian Collection > Morison's edition of the Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

444 A DISSERTATION CONCERNING
free of that toil and bufinefs, which engrofs the attention of
a commercial people. Their amufement confifted in hear-
ing or repeating their fongs and traditions, and thefe mtire-
ly turned on the antiquity of their nation, and the exploits
of their forefathers. It is no wonder, therefore, that there
are more remains of antiquity among them, than among
any other people in Europe. Traditions, however, con-
cerning: remote periods, are only to be regarded, in fo far
as they CO incide with cotemporary writers of undoubted
credit and veracity.
No writers began their accounts from a more early pe-
riod, than the hiftorians of the Scots nation. Without re-
cords, or even tradition itfeif, they give a long lift of an-
cient kings, and a detail of their tranfidions, with a fcru-
pulous exadtnefs. One might naturally fuppofe, that, when
they had no authentic annals, they fhou d, at haft, have re-
courfe to the traditions of their country, and have reduced
them into a regular fylten^ of hiftory. Of both they feeni
to have been equally dcftitute. Born in the low country,
and ftrangers to the ancient language of thf ir nation, they
contented thtmfeives with copying from one another, and
retailing the fame fidtions, in a new colour and drefs.
John Fordun was the {irft who colleded thofe fragments
of the Scots hiilory, which had efcaped the brutal policy
of Edward I. and reduced them into order. Hia accounts,
in fo far as they concerned recent tranfadions, defervtd
credit: beyond a certain period, they were fabulous and un-
fatisfadtory. Some time before Fordun wrote, the king of
England, in a letter to the Pope, had run up the antiquity
of his nation to a very remote sera. Fordun, pofleflTed of
all the national prejudice of the age, was unwilling that his
country (hould yield, in point of antiquity, to a people,
tic