Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

68 Critical Dissertation
niorial. We must not therefore imagine the Celta
to have been altogether a gi-oss and rude nation.
They possessed from very remote ages a formed
system of discipline and manners, which appears to
have had a deep and lasting influence. Ammianus
MerceUinus gives them this express testimony, that
there flourished among them the study of the
most laudable arts ; introduced by the Bards, whose
office it was to sing in heroic verse the gallant
actions of illustrious men ; and by the Druids, who
lived together in colleges, or societies, after the
Pythagorean manner, and philosophizing upon the
highest subjects, asserted the immortality of the
human soul. Though Julius Caesar, in his account
of Gaul, does not expressly mention the Bards,
yet it is plain, that under the title of Druids he
comprehends that whole college or order ; of which
the Bards, who, it is probable, were the disciples
of the Druids, undoubtedly made a part. It de-
serves remark that, according to his account, the
Druidical institution first took rise in Britain, and
passed from thence into Gaul ; so that they who
aspired to be thorough masters of that learning were
wont to resort to Britain. He adds too, that such
as were to be initiated among the Druids, were
obliged to commit to their memory a great number of
verses, insomuch that some employed twenty years
in this course of education ; and that they did not
think it lawful to record these poems in writing,
but sacredly handed them down by tradition from
race to race.
So strong was the attachment of the Celtic na-
tions to their poetry and their bards, that amidst
all the changes of their Government and manners,
even long after the order of the Druids was extinct
and the national religion altered, the bards con-
tinued to flourish ; not as a set of strolling songsters,
like the Greek 'Aoi^ei, or Khapsodists, in Homer's
time, but as an order of men highly respected in