Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

the Poems of Ossian. 35
is confessed, are too local to be admired iu another
language; to those who are acquainted with the
manners they represent, and the scenes they
describe, they must afford pleasure and satisfaction.
It was the locality of their description and senti-
ments that, probably, has kept them hitherto in
the obscurity of an almost lost language. The
ideas of an unpolished period are so contrary to the
present advanced state of society, that more than
a common mediocrity of taste is required, to relish
them as they deserve. Those who alone are capa-
ble of transferring ancient poetry into a modem
language, might be better employed in giving
originals of their own, were it not for that wretched
envy and meanness which affects to despise con-
temporary genius. My first publication was merely
accidental. Had I then met with less approbation,
my after-pursuits would have been more profitable ;
at least I might have continued to be stupid, with-
out being branded with dulness.
These poems may furnish light to antiquaries,
as well as some pleasure to the lovers of poetry.
The first population of Ireland, its first kings, and
several circumstances which regard its connexion
of old with the south and north of Britain, are
presented iu several episodes. The subject and
catastrophe of the poem are founded upon facts
which regarded the first peopling of that country,
and the contests between the two British nations
who originally inhabited that island. In a preced-
ing part of this Dissertation, I have shown how
superior the probability of this system is to the
undigested fictions of the Irish bards, and the more
recent and regtdar legends of both Irish and Scot-
tish historians, I mean not to give offence to the
abettors of the high antiquities of the two nations,
though I have all along expressed my doubts con-
cerning the veracity and abilities of those who
deliver down their ancient history. For my own