Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

OF OSSIAN'S POEMS.
the immortality of the soul : — " 'A<p9«/5Taf ra?
•vfv;)^af Myovdi!"' And Lucan says,
'VoMs auctoribus umbrce
No7i tacitas Erebi scdes, didsque profundi
Pallida regna petunt ; regit enim spiritus artus,
Orbe alio longa, canitis si cognita, vitx,
Pomponius Mela (lib. iii.) informs us, " that
" the Druids profess to know the magnitude
" and form of the earth and of the world,
" the motions of the heaven and of the stars,
" and the will of the gods."
In these sublime and important studies,
the disciples of the Druids spent sometimes
no less than the space of twenty years. All
their science and history were committed to
memory alone. Though the art of writing
was known amongst them, it was held un-
lawful to commit their doctrines to wri-
ting. Csesar accordingly adds, that it was
usual, for the disciples of the Druids, to com-
mit a vast number of verses, in which, no