175 



that its language is not the language of the third century. The poem 

 he alludes to is well known even in Scotland, and is to be found in 

 every collection of poems in Ireland that are ascribed to Ossian. 

 Dr. Young found it in the Highlands of Scotland, so did Mr. Hill, 

 and both published it ; the bishop, in the first vol. of the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Irish Academy, and Mr. Hill, in his Collection of 

 Gaelic Poems. Both copies are incorrect, but they prove that they 

 are of Irish origin. In Scotland the poem is called " Urnigh Oisin," 

 in Ireland it is named sometimes "Tomarbadh" and at other times 

 " Agallamh Phadruig agus Oisin.*' ,r , '..• -; nf". 



The contradiction now detected is not, however, the only thing- 

 observable in the above quotation. The " father of Ossian " speaks 

 here, as he did a few lines before, of Culdees as contemporaries with 

 Ossian, and he tells us, that " the name of CwWees, in the language of 

 the country, signified the sequestered persons." It is hard to say whe- 

 ther, in this passage, Mr. Macpherson displays more of effrontery, 

 ignorance, or folly. Where did he find that the name of Culdees 

 had been ever heard of for centuries after Ossian had been laid in his 

 grave, even supposing him to have lived down to the days of Saint 

 Patrick, which cannot be admitted ^ Mr. Macpherson could scarcely 

 be ignorant of the fact, that no Culdees could possibly be contem- 

 poraries with Ossian ; but he chose, for reasons best known to him- 

 self, to create Culdees six hundred years before God was pleased to 

 call them into existence. But let him be ignorant of that fact or not, 

 he displays no small share of ignorance in the etymology of the name, 

 which he says signifies a '* sequestered person." This is an error 

 that could hardly be committed by any person having the least pre- 

 tensions to the character of a Gaelic scholar, and it aflfbrds an irrefrar 

 gable proof of Macpherson's incompetency to translate the genuine 

 poems of Ossian, if such were laid before him. The word Culdee is 



