Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 1

A DISSEP.TATIOV, ScC. 17
racter, and the exertion of great parts. Merit there
rises always superior ; no fortuitous event can raise
the timid and mean into power. To those who look,
upon antiquity in this Kght, it is an agreeable pros-
pect : and they alone can have real pleasure in tracing
nations to their source.
The establishment of the Celtic states in the north
of Europe, is beyond the reach of their v/ritten annals.
The traditions and songs to v/hich they trusted their
history, were lost, or altogether corrupted in their re-
volutions and migrations, which were so frequent and
universal, that no kingdom :n Europe is nov/ possessed
by its original inhabitants. Societies v/ere formed, and
kingdoms erected, from a mixture of nations, who, in
process of time, lost all knowledge of their own origin.
If tradition could be depended upon, it is only a-
mong a people, from all time free of mterm.ixture M'ith
foreigners. We are to look for these among the moun-
tains and inaccessible parts of a c<^ntry ; places, on ac-
count of their barrenness, uninviting to an eneniy,
cr whose natural strength enabled the natives to repel
invasions. Such are the inhabitants of the mountains
of Scotland. We accordingly find, that they differ
materially from those who possess the low a.nd more
fertile part of the kingdom. Their language is pure
and original, and their manners are those of an ancient
and unmixed race of mien. Conscious of their own an-
tiquity, they long despised others, as a nev/ and mixed
people. As they lived in a country only fit for pas-
ture, they were free of that toil and business which
engross the attention of a commercial people. Their
amusement consisted in hearing or repeating their
songs and tradition?, and these entirely turned on the
antiquity of their nation, and the exploits of their fore-
fathers. It is no wonder, therefore, that there are
more remains of antiquity among them, than among
any other people in Europe. Traditions, however,
concerning remote periods, are only to be regarded,
in so far as they coincide with cotemporary writers of
undoubted creoit and veracity. b' 3