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

303 ACCOUNT OF
Inde petit tumulos, exesasque undique rupes,
Antaei quae regna vocat non vana vetustas.
Nominis antiqui cupientem noscere causas,
Cognita per multos docuit rudis incola patres.
Nondum post genitos Tellus efFeta gigantes,
Terribilem Libycis partum concepit in antris.
Nee tarn jnsta fuit terrarum gloria Typhon,
Aut Tityos, Briareusque ferox : cceloque pepercit,
Quod non Phlegraeis Antaeum sustulit arvis.
Hoc quoque tam vastas cumulavit munere vires
Terra sui foetus, quod, cum tetigcre parentem,
Jam defecta vigent renovato robore membra.
Haec illi spelunca domus : latuisse sub altà
Rupe ferunt, epulas raptos habuisse leones.
Ad somnos non terga ferae praebere cubile
Adsuerunt, non silva torum : viresque resumit
In nuda tellure jacens ; periere coloni
Arvorum Libyes : pereunt, quos adpulit aequor,
Auxilioque diu virtus non usa cadendi,
Terrae spernit opes : invictus robore cunctis>
Quamvis staret ; erat *.
What remains of this MS. is but part of a considerable
work on ancient history, written on the authority of Greek
and Roman authors, and interspersed with notices of the
arts, armour, manners, dress, superstition, and usages of the
Scots of the author's own time.
Though the whole of this interesting work be still ex-
tant, there is nothing from the beginning to the end of it, that,
gives the most distant hint of the name or condition of its
learned and eloquent author. It can be merely inferred
from his work that he wrote after Orosius, and before Bede,
or between the 5th and Sth centuries.
* Phsrsalia, Lib. IV. v. 587,-609.