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this head, it may be said, is no positive proof that the poems in ques- 

 tion are modern ; but if it be not a positive proof, it amounts to some- 

 thing very Hke one. For it is evident, from the silence of the author, 

 that he wrote at a time when wolves and bears were unknown in Scot- 

 land, except by report. If the poems had been written at the time as- 

 signed to them, such an omission could not possibly have taken place. 

 The silence of the poems -with respect to religion, is also con- 

 sidered as affording an internal proof of their authenticity. Doctor 

 Blair, in his Critical Dissertation, n. ed. p. 63, asserts that there is a 

 " total absence of religious ideas from this work," and he argues from 

 this, that it puts any doubts of " the high antiquity of these poems 

 out of the question." But how is this a proof of that kind ? Mr. 

 Macpherson, in his " Dissertation on the Era of Ossian," tells us, 

 that, "It is a singular case, it must be allowed, that there are no 

 traces of religion in the poems ascribed to Ossian," n. ed. p. 10. To 

 prepare his readers for this, he told them, in a page or two before, 

 that the Druids bore the chief sway ; that in times of danger they 

 united the tribes, and chose a temporary king, or Vergobretus, (an 

 officer, by-the-by, that never was heard of by the ancient Scots of 

 either nations ;") that at one time the grandfather of Fingal was Ver- 

 gobretus, and being commanded by the Druids to surrender his office, 

 he refused. This refusal brought on a civil war, which soon ended 

 in almost the total extinction of the religious order of the Druids 

 * * * * A total disregard for the order and utter abhorrence of the 

 Druidical rites ensued * * * He adds, "It is no matter of wonder 

 then, that Fingal and his son Ossian disliked the Druids, who were 

 the declared enemies to their succession in the supreme magistracy.' 

 This he seems to think may be a sufficient reason for the silence of his 

 Ossian with respect to religion ; but lest this should not be sufficient, 

 he tells us, (w. ed. p. 11.) that, " Those who write in the GaeUc laq- 



