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

THE POEMS OF OSSIAK. 3J
'pv'itktc tliem to tlie Irifh nation. Though the whole
tenor of the poems fufiiciently contraclidl fo abfurd an
opinion, it may not be improper, tor the fa'dsraifliou
of Ibme, to examine tlie narrow foundation, on which
this extraordinary claim is built.
Of all the nations dtfcended from the ancient CeU^^f
the Scots and Irifh are the molt fimilar in language,
cuflcms, and manners. This argues a more intimat?
connection between them, than a remote defcelU from
the great Celtic ftock. It is evident, in fnort, that at
fome one period or other, they formed one fociety>
•were fubjecl to the fame government, and were, in all
refpe6ls, one and the fame people. How they became
tilvided, which the colony, or which the mother-na-
tion, does not fall now to be difcuifed. The firft cii'-
cumflance that induced me to difregard the vulgarly-
received opinion of the Hibernian extraction of the
Scottifh nation, was my obfervations on their ancient
language. That diale(5l of the Celtic' tongue, fpokea
in th« north of Scotland, is much more pure, more a-
grceable to its mother-language, and more abounding
with primaiives, than that now fpoken, or even that
which has been writ for fome centuries back, amongft
the moft unm.ixed part of the Irifli nation. A Scotfman,
tolerably converfant in his ov/nlangu^e. underllands aiY
Irifh compcfition, from that derivative analogy which
it has to the Gslu of North Britain. An Iri^nan on
the other hand, without the aid of ftudy, can never
undei-fland a compofition in the Gcilic tongue. This
affords a proof that the Ssots Galic is the moft original,
and, confequently tlie language of a more ancient and
unmixed people. The Irifh, however backward they
may be to allow any tiling to the prejudice of their anti-
quity, feem inadvertently to acknowledge it, by the very
appellation they give to the dialeCl they fpeak. They
call their own language Gaelic Eirinach, i. e. Cahdoniua
Jri/by when, on tlie contrary, they call die dialect of
K'orth-Bi-itain a ChaeUc or the Caledonian tongue, empha-
tically. A QirciiJ2i|t,iace of this nature teads hsdjiC ifi.