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36. OssiAN. I afk the protcdlion of the twelve apoftles for 

 myfelf to-night ; and if I have committed any heavy fins, let 

 them be thrown into my grave upon the hill '. 



' It is of this poem that Mr. Mc. Eherfon, having ingenioudy metamorphofed St. 

 Patrick Mac Alpin into Mac Alpin a Culdee, feems to fpeak in the following man- 

 ner, in his diflbrtation on Offian's poems : " It was with one .of the Culdees," 

 fays he, " that Ofllan, in his extreme old age, is faid to have difputed concerning 

 " the Chriflian religion. This difpute is (till extant, and is couched in verfe, ac - 

 " cording to the c_uftom of the times. The extreme ignorance on the part of Offian 

 " of the Chriftian tenets fhews that that religion had only been lately introduced, as 



