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the copy given in the "Works of the Highland Bards ;" but letting 

 these pass, the poem is sufficient to prove the plagiarism of Mac- 

 pherson. 



The seventh example ; " The combat between Oscar and Ullin." 

 This poem is called " Dan na hinghine," in Irish, and is addressed 

 by Ossian to Saint Patrick. Doctor Young found a copy of it in 

 the Highlands of Scotland. 



The eight example ; " The Lamentation of the Spouse of Dargo." 

 Whatever merit may be in this, we leave Ossian and Mr, Macpherson 

 in full possession of it. We do not at present recollect any thing 

 like it in Irish, nor do we think it worth further inquiry. 

 ^ ^ -The Doctor complains of the variations and imperfections of the 

 copies conveyed to our times by tradition, yet, strange to say, he had 

 before said, that by means of this very oral tradition, " it was hardly 

 possible to say that they" (the poems) " could either have perished 

 totally or have been greatly altered." But not quite satisfied with 

 the oral preservation of the poems, he tells that they may have been 

 committed to writing, and so preserved, as the Scotch " had the use 

 of letters from the latter end of the sixth age," i. e. three hundred 

 years after Ossian had been gathered to his fathers. He does not 

 confess the obligation the Scotch nation owes to the Irish for this 

 knowledge of letters, or that it was owing to the foundation of the 

 monastery at Hy, by Saint Columbkill, and other Irishmen, that it 

 was continued by a constant supply of other learned Irishmen, and 

 that when that establishment was broken up, the Scotch relapsed 

 into ignorance and comparative barbarism. But the Doctor seems to 

 think that even three hundred years might be too long for these long 

 poems to exist without writing, and he has recourse to another and 

 earlier period when the poems might be committed to writing. He 

 says, "If we suppose that Ossian was contemporary with the Irish 



VOL. XVI. n II 



