m 



SECTION V. 



On the Language of Ossian. 



Language, like every thing human, is fluctuating and hable to 

 constant change. Even where it is preserved by written rules, it is 

 not exempt from mutations and corruptions. In the course of ages 

 it suffers so much alteration as to be scarcely recognizable as the 

 same language. Its fate is similar to that of the ship that is con- 

 stantly repaired by new timbers, or the metaphysician's stocking, 

 which, by frequent wearing and darning, had its personal identity 

 rendered questionable. 



Ut silvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos, 

 Prima cadunt ; ita verborum interit cetas, 

 Et juvenum ritu florent modo nata, vigentque. 



HOR. 



As when the forest, with the bending year. 

 First sheds the leaves which earliest appear. 

 So an old age of words maturely dies, 

 Others, new born, in youth and vigour rise. 



Fbancis. 



The history of all languages bears evidence to the truth of these 

 observations of the Roman poet. It was strikingly exemplified in his 

 native tongue, nor is it less so in our own.* How few can at present 



• Niebhur, in his Travels in Arabia, observes that the " Arabian language, one of the most 

 ancient and general in the world, has had the fate of other living languages which have been 

 spoken through many ages, and by the inhabitants of different provinces and countries re- 

 mote from one another. It has gradually undergone such an alteration, that the Arabic spo- 

 ken and written by Mahomet, may now be regarded as a dead language." 



VOL. XVI. O 



