Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

LETTERS TO DR. BLAIR. 17
If we suppose with others, that Ossian was cotemporary
with the Irish apostle, and converted by him to the chris-
tian faith, the solution of your question is so much the
more easy. All the world will allow," that the use of
letters was known in Ireland from St Patrick's time ; and
it must be acknowledged that the sons of Erin were great-
ly interested in the preservation of Ossian's works, as well
as the men of Caledonia. Therefore it may very reason-
ably be presumed, that some one of St Patrick's disciples
would have committed to writing the compositions of that
excellent poet, before he himself had left the world, that
is to say, before the middle of the fifth century. From
the manuscript written by that disciple, numberless copies
might have been drawn out from age to age ; and as there
was a constant intercourse between the Irish of Ulster and
the Scots of the western parts of Caledonia, some of these
copies would have undoubtedly been imported into the
Highlands and Isles from Ireland ; especially as the mis-
sionaries and bards of that country made a practice of vi-
siting those parts of Scotland in Columba's time, and for
many ages thereafter. We learn from history, as well as
tradition, that Columba himself, though a saint of the
highest character, had a peculiar regard for the bards oi
his time. It may therefore be very reasonably thought
that he had a just value for the works of Ossian, and
would have consequently encouraged some one of the scribes
about him to take the most effectual method of handing
them down to posterity entire and unadulterated.
That the compositions of our bards were committed to
writing in the Highlands, after the use of letters began to
prevail, there cannot be a reasonable question. I have
myself seen more than one folio containing the works of
rhymers, whose merit falls infinitely short of Ossian's 5
and will it be thought that the monuments of genius ìeff
G