65 



In this poem, Ossian is said to have been born A. D. 282, or a 

 little later ; but, as in fragments discovered in the High-lands of 

 Scotland by the industry of the Rev. Mr. Young,"^- compared w^ith 

 some in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, the name of St. 

 Patrick is often introduced, he could not have been long existent 

 before the 5th century ; and, if those Feinne, of w^hom Ossian vfSiS 

 general, were Nordnians, as most writers affirm, or accompanied 

 by them, as I believe, this event could not have occurred before the 

 8th century. Consequently those detached pieces, ascribed to 

 Ossian, were probably the composition of the 9th or 10th century, or 

 even of a later time. It lias been said, that the name of St. Patrick 

 is an Irish interpolation ; but it is more likely, that the word culdee 

 has been foisted in by Mr. Mac Pherson, to give the poem an air of 

 antiquity ; and that the word Erin,'"- which frequently occurs, was 

 industriously expunged, and Almhuin, the residence of Ossian in 

 Leinster, changed into Albin,^"^*- with a view of claiming this hero 

 as a native of Scotland. Thus it appears, that national vanity, at 

 the expense of truth, lays claim to heroic and virtuous deeds ; when, 

 without apparent hazard of detection, the record may be stolen from 

 the obscurity of time. 



The names of Oisin, Fionn mac Cumhail, and Oscar, are im- 

 mortalized on, and some transferred to, a few of our bleakest 

 mountains ; and the cause is assigned in Irish verse ; through which 



VOL. XIII. K 



172. Trans, of the Royal Irish Academy, V. 1. p. ip. 



173. I. 65. Ciod e fath do thuruis do dh' Eirion ? For what cause have you come to Ire- 

 land ? This question is changed into, ' Ciod e fath do thuruis do'n tir V For what cause have 

 you come to this country ? A mhaithibh Fiann Eirion, the noble Fians of Ireland, is 

 changed into, ' O'r maithibh is or mor uaislibh,' the nobles and great chieftains. 



lli. Trans, of the R. Irish Acad. v. I, under the head of ' Ancient Gaelic poems. &c.' 



