understand the writings of Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, orthe "Chro- 

 nykle" of Wintown, Chaucer, or the whole even of so late a writer as 

 Spenser, without the help of a glossary ? But the advocates of the 

 authenticity of Ossian, maintain that his language was exempt from 

 the usual vicissitudes ; that the insulated situation of the kingdom of 

 Morven prevented the introduction of foreign terms ; and that it has 

 flowed down to us through the channel of oral tradition, uncontami- 

 nated and pure as when it flowed from the lips of the Caledonian 

 bard. The victories of the Highland Scots over the Roman legions, 

 the subsequent introduction of Christianity, the visits of the Danes 

 and Norwegians, their occasional commercial intercourse with the 

 Lowlanders, and their subjection to the crowns of Scotland and of 

 England, never corrupted the purity of their immaculate tongue ! 

 The people, indeed, degenerated into barbarism, but the language 

 remained uncorrupt, to attest to these degenerate times, the genius 

 and refinement of the days of old ! Widely different has been the 

 fate of the same language in Ireland, where it was written according 

 to grammatical rules, and where it had legislators, philosophers, and 

 poets, who might be considered as its guardians against innovation 

 and corruption. In defiance of just laws and sage maxims, and the 

 more popular influence of song, it has undergone such revolutions as 

 would prevent the best Irish scholars from understanding any com- 

 positions of the grandson of Comhal, were any such really extant. 

 They would be to him as the annosa volumina vatum, to the contem- 

 poraries of Horace ; or, as the fragments yet remaining of the Brehon 

 laws to the most erudite Irish antiquary. But the Gaelic version of 

 Ossian presented to the public by Sir John Sinclair, is in the lan- 

 guage spoken at the present day, and accompanied with no difficulty 

 which every ordinary Irish or Erse scholar cannot easily overcome. 

 Of course, it is justly regarded as the fabrication of Macpherson and 



