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

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. ii3
The three elder fons of Fingal, Oflian, Fillan, and Ryno,
dying without ifTue, the fucceffion, of courfe, devolved u-
pon Fergus, the fourth fon and his polkrity. Vhis Fergus,
fay fome traditions, was the father of Congal, whofe fon
was Arcath, the father of Fergus,- properly called the firft
king of Scots, as it was in his time the Cael, who poffcffed
the weftern coa of Scotland, began to be diftinguifhed by
foreigners, by the name of Scots From thence forward*
the Scots and Pids as diftind nations, became objefts of
attention to the hiftorians of other countries. The internal
ftate of the two i^aledonian kingdoms has always continued,
and ever muft remain, in obfourity and fable.
It is in this epoch we muft fix the beginning of the decay
of that fpecies of heroifm, which fubfifted in the days of
O/Iiari. There are three ftages in human fociety. The
firft is the refult of confanguinity, and the natural affedion
of the m.embers of a family to one another. The fecond
begins when property is eftablifhed, and men enter into af-
fociations for mutual defence, againft the invafions and in-
Juftice of neighbours. Mankind fubmit, in the third, to
certain laws and fubordinations of government, to which
they truft the fafety of their perfons and property. As the
firft is formed on nature, fo, of courfe, it is the moft difin-
terefted and noble. Men, in the laft, have leifure to culti-
vate the mind, and to reftore it, with refledlion, to a pri-
masval dignity of fentiment. The middle ftate is the re-
gion of complete barbarifm and ignorance. About the be-
ginning of the fifth century, the Sects and Pi<5ts were ad-
vanced into the fecond ftage, and, confequently, into thofe
circumfcribed fentiments, which always diftinguifli barba-
ri«^". The events which foon after happened did not at all
contribute to enlarge their ideas, or mend their national
char^dler.
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