Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

DISSERTATION
COXCERNING TUB
^Il»^ OF OSSI^JV,
Inquiries into tlie antiquities of nations aiTord
more pleasure tlian any real advantage to man-
kind. The ingenious may form systems of history
on probabilities and a few facts : but, at a great
distance of time, their accounts must be vague and
uncertain. The infancy of states and kingdoms
is as destitute of great events, as of the means of
transmitting them to posterity. The arts of po-
lished life, by which alone facts can be preserved
with certainty, are the production of a well-formed
community. It is then historians begin to write,
and public transactions to be worthy remem-
brance. The actions of former times are left in
obscurity, or magnilied by uncertain traditions.
Hence it is that we ftnd so much of the marvellous
in the origin of every nation ; posterity being al-
ways ready io believe any thing, however fabu-
lous, that reflects honour on their ancestors.
The Greeks and Romans were remarkable for
this weakness. They swallowed the most absurd
fables concerning the high antiquities of thiir re-
spective nations. Good historians, however, rose