Ossian Collection > Original collection of the poems of Ossian, Orrann, Ulin, and other bards, who flourished in the same age

PHEFACE. lis
which correspond to the state of society in which
they were then placed, and from the absurdity of
supposing that the people should have become
more barbarous, as they approached to civiliza-
tion.
In picturing; out the Highlanders of the third
century, we conceive our author had before his
eyes a very different idea of manners from that
which existed among them. If there be any state
of society, previous to the introduction of artifi-
cial manners, in which the good principles of the
human heart are more frequently called into ac-
tion than the bad, it is in the pastoral state.
Those harassing fears of want, which perpetually
haunt a nation subsisting wholly by the chace,
have now given place to the ideas of property, in
the comforts of a more fixed abode. As indivi-
duals have now more leisure. Love, the most pro-
minent passion of the human heart, begins to un-
fold itself in all its power. As the patriarchal
government still prevails, and distinct ideas of se-
parate property have not yet been introduced
among the individuals of the same family, filial
respect, and the endearing attachments of kindred,
are their prevailing and habitual sentiments. The
effects of these harmonising sentiments are seen,
even in their contests with the neighbouring tribes,
and as the love of fame, rather than the gratifica-
tion of avarice or ambition, is their chief motive
for the combat, the vanquished captive is usually