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as to be incapable of translating the genuine poems of Ossian, if he 

 had them before him. After what we have already said, it is almost 

 unnecessary to say more on the Culdees ; we cannot, however, let the 

 subject pass without calling the attention of the reader to the poem ot 

 " The Battle of Lora," p. 108, o. ed., and of " Carricthura," p. 209, 

 as well as to an assertion of Macpherson in the Dissertation above 

 mentioned, where he asserts, n. ed. p. 12, that the first " Christian 

 missionaries * * * * took possession of the cells and groves of the 

 Druids, and it was from this retired life they had the name of Cul- 

 dees, which, in the language of the country, signified, *' the seques- 

 tered persons." This he again repeats in his first note to *' the Battle 

 of Lora," o. ed. p. 118, where he tells us that this poem "was 

 addressed to one of the first Christian missionaries, who were called, 

 from their retired life, Culdees, or sequestered persons." We have 

 already so completely exposed the folly of this ridiculous etymology, 

 that it requires no further notice. But where did Macpherson find 

 that Christian missionaries retired into cells or groves ? All writers 

 of early ecclesiastical history, unanimously declare, that the first 

 Christian missionaries in all nations courted publicity. That they 

 did so in Ireland the sites of the most ancient churches abundantly 

 prove. The churches of Armagh, Down, Trim, Dunshaughlin, 

 Duleek, &c., were all in the most public places in Ireland; and, in 

 the accounts we have of their foundation, we find nothing of " the 

 cells and groves of the Druids." The manners and customs of the Irish 

 and Scotch were the same in early times. This being the case, as the 

 Irish missionaries did not retreat to the cells and groves of the Druids, 

 is it not a fair conclusion that the Scotch missionaries did not do so ? 

 How then could they be called ^^sequestered persons?" The fact is, 

 that a Culdee was never heard of in these nations until the beginning 

 of the ninth century ; and our Irish annalists tell us that they first 



