Ossian Collection > Journey to the western islands of Scotland

28 A JOURNEY TO THE
his efteem, by infcribing to him a cata-
logue of his works. The flyle of Boethius,
though, perhaps, not always rigorouily
pure, is formed with great diUgence upon
ancient models, and wholly uninfeded
with monaftic barbarity. His hiftory is
■written with elegance and vigour, but his
fabuloufnefs and credulity are juftly blamed.
His fabuloufnefs, if ^he was the author of
the fidions, is a fault for which no apo-
logy can be made ; but his credulity may
be excufed in an age, when all men were
credulous. Learning was then rifing on
the world ; but ages fo long accuftomed to
darknefs, were too much dazzled with its
light to fee any thing diftindly. The
firft race of fcholars in the fifteenth cen-
tury, and fome time after, were, for the
mofl part, learning to fpeak, rather than
to think, and were therefore more /ludious
of elegance than of truth. The contem-
poraries of Boethius thought it fufficicnt to
know what the ancients had delivered.
The