78 



sunt. Pursuing the chase in regions not peopled according to their extent, he often finds him- 

 self alone in the gloomy desert, or by the margin of the dark frowning deep ; his imagination 

 tinged with pleasing melancholy, finds society in the passing breeze, and he beholds the 

 airy forms of his fathers descending on the skirts of the cloud. When the tempest howls 

 over the heath, and the elements are mixed in dire uproar, he recognizes the angry spirit of 

 the storm, and he retires to his secret cave. Such is at this day, the tone of mind which cha- 

 racterises the Highlander, who has not lost the distinctive marks of his race by commerce 

 with strangers; and such too is the picture which has been drawn by Ossian."* 



After this, who shall venture to contend against the possibility of 

 the Highlands, even in modern times, producing some genius of equal 

 or superior lustre to all its former luminaries ? 



Among the notices of the principal Gaelic books, published dur- 

 ing the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, p. 562, vol. iii. of Sir John 

 Sinclair's edition of Ossian, is the following : 



"A Collection of Poems by Buncan Mac-Intyre of Glenurchy, Argyllshire 1768, 8vo. 

 Mac-Intyre, though an illiterate man, holds place among the first of modern Bards; his 

 poem on the summer is beautiful and energetic, equal to any thing in Thomson's Seasons ; 

 his panegyric on Beindouran, (a hill above Glenurchy,) excels every thing of this kind ; his 

 Mam-Lorn, or Coire cheathaich, and Coire gorm au fhasaich, are admired by every Celtic 

 scholar, who takes pleasure to see nature painted in the liveliest colours." 



Tliis notice forcibly corroborates the presumption of the editor of 

 the Ogygia Vindicated, that " no man will deny that a Highland 

 bard of the last or present century, may not possess as much poetical 

 fire as the son of Fingal, or any other illiterate bard in Fingal's 

 army;""!" especially, it might be added, if his natural fire was height- 

 ened, and his taste improved like Macpherson's, by close famiUarity 

 with the Scriptures, and the English, Greek, and Roman classics. 



Some Irish poets of modern times might contest the palm with 

 the most celebrated poets of antiquity. Mr. O'Reilly informs us of 



• Graham's Essay, pp. 28, 29. f Editor's Preface, p. 15. 



