Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

112 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON
suppose that two or three hundred years ago,
when we well know the Plighlands to have been
in a state of gross ignorance and barbarity,
there should have arisen in that country a poet,
of such exquisite genius, and of such deep
knowledge of mankind, and of history, as to
divest himself of the ideas and manners of his
own age, and to give us a just and natural
picture of a state of society ancienter by a
thousand years ; one who could support this
counterfeited antiquity through such a large
collection of poems, without the least incon-
sistency ; and who, possessed of all this genius
and art, had at the same time the self-denial of
concealino- himself, and of ascribino* his own
works to an antiquated bard, without the im-
posture being detected ; is a supposition that
transcends all bounds of credibility.
There are, besides, two other circumstances
to be attended to, still of greater weight, if
possible, against this hypothesis. One is, the
total absence of religious ideas from this work ;
for which the translator has, in his preface,
given a very probable account, on the footing
of its being the work of Ossian. The druidical
superstition was, in the days of Ossian, on the
point of its final extinction; and for particular
reasons, odious to the family of Fingal ; M^hilst
the Christian faith was not yet established. But