177 



owe the preservation of what remains of the more ancient poems." 

 What a comphment to the historic veracity of Ossian, upon whose 

 authority he and his friend Doctor John Macpherson built their new 

 system of ancient Scottish History. Fearful, however, that this 

 manner of accounting for Ossian's preservation might not be quite 

 satisfactory, he attempts to bolster it up by a description of Gaelic 

 verse, which he says was " admirably contrived for that purpose" 

 Admirable ! That man must be an excellent judge of all the niceties 

 of ancient Gaelic versification, who could discover that the meaning 

 of the word Culdees signified " the sequestered persons I" 



Tradition, however, does not appear to be at all times of equal 

 authority with " the father of Ossian." When it serves to preserve 

 ancient poems it is good, but when it opposes, or does not support a 

 favourite hypothesis, it is then worthless. This kind of contradic- 

 tion is not unfrequent with Mr. Macpherson. At p. 14, n. ed., he 

 labours to shew that tradition was able to preserve the poems of 

 Ossian, but when he comes to speak of ancient Scottish history it is of 

 no avail. He tells us (p. 21, n. ed.) "Traditions, however, concern- 

 ing remote periods, are only to be regarded in so far as they coincide 

 with contemporary writers of undoubted credit and veracity." Again, 

 p. 28, we are told " Probability is all that can be established on the 

 authority of tradition, ever dubious and uncertain," If this be so, 

 what becomes of the Macphersonian system of British and Irish His- 

 tory, revealed to the two worthy namesakes, by an old bard of the 

 third century, whose account of the Caledonian colonization of 

 Ireland, in the first century, does not " coincide with contemporary 

 writers of undoubted credit or authority," or indeed with any other 

 writers, contemporary or otherwise ? ' ' 



The consideration of Mr. Macpherson's discoveries regarding the 

 early colonization of Ireland, might, not improperly, be postponed 



