Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

34 A DISSERTATION CONCERNING
strikin,^, to them it is a matter of indifference, whe-
ther the heroes were born in the little village of An-
gles in Jutland, or natives of the barren heaths of Cale-
donia. That honour which nations derive from ances-
tors, worthy or renowned, is merely ideal. It may
buoy up the minds of individuals, but it contributes
very little to their importance in the eyes of others.
But of all those prejudices which are incident to nar-
row minds, that N\hich measures the merit of perfor-
mances by the vulgar opinion concerning the country
which produced them, is certainly the most ridiculous.
Ridiculous, however, as it is, few have the courage to
reject it ; and I am thoroughly convmced, that a few
quaint lines of a Roman or Greek epigrammatist, if dug
out of tlie ruins cf Herculaneum, would meet with more
cordial and universal applause, than all the most beau-
tiful and natural rhapsodies of ail the Celtic bards and
Scandinavian scalders that ever existed.
While some doubt the authenticity of the composi-
tions of Ossian, others strenuously endeavour to ap-
propriate them to the Irish nation. Though the whole
tenor of the poems suflltiently contradicts so absurd an
opinion, it mav not be improper, for the satisfaction of
some, to examine the narrow foundation on which this
extraordinary claim it built.
Of all the nations descended from the ancient Cel-
tae, the Scot> and Irish are the most similar in lan-
guage, customs, and manners. This argues a more inti- •
mate connection between them, than a remote descent
from the great Celtic stock. It is evident, -in short,
that at some one period or other, they formed one
society, were subject to the same government, and
"were, in ail respects, one and the same people. How
they became divided, which the colony, or which the
mother nation, does not fall now to be discussed. The
first circumstance that induced me to disregard the
vulgarlv-received opinion of the Hibernian extraction
of the Scottish nation, was my observations on their
ancient language. .That dialect of the Celtic tongue
spoken in the north of Scotland, is much more pure,