OS5 
work in his mafter’s defence. After he had made what he 
deemed fufficient progrefs in his legal ftudies, he prattifed 
at the bar in Paris, and was greatly admired for his mafcu- 
able in one the once of that king with the 
fee o R In he was faced with a cardinal’s 
hat, and in Wine years after s was made bifhop of 
Bayeux. He died in an of great pene- 
asam 
tration, and fingularly prudent and circumfpect in the 
management of affairs, fo that it is faid of him, that j 
never made a falfe ftep. He left behind him a great num- 
ber of letters relative to the negociations in which he was 
enga which are reckoned models of political fagacity. 
The belt ed edition is aay: of Amelot de la Houflaye, in 1698, 
in two vols, 4to., ve vols, 12mo. oreri. 
EGG, in Cas raphy; a town of Bohemia, in the 
circle of Leitmeritz ; “8 miles W.N.W. of Leitmeritz. 
SELET, in the Man ris av ery hard excrefcence, 
with 
e, and only ditinguihable from ae knee 
by its extending a > tite e low 
OSSE a in Gecgroply, a town of Italy, in the 
Veronefe ; 6 mile 
OSSERVANZA, “Ttal., .s in 1 Mf fic: con offe TVan%a, with 
care, attention, exactitude, in obferving and executing with 
precifion whatever is written or printed; without omiffions 
or addition, which Corelli eso: by come fia, as it ftands 
in the co 
ACH, in Geography, a town of Carinthia, on the 
lake Offiacher; 4 miles S.W. of Feltkirchen 
OSSIA ACHER Seg, a lake of Carinthia, four miles long 
ide; 4 miles N.E. of Villach. 
SIA He in pn bat Hiftory, a Celtic bard, who, as well 
as Fingal and other heroes whom he is faid to have celebrated 
thefe people, had 
not Macpherfon, ge the middle of the laft century, pub- 
lifhed two volum 
rene pcions of their authenticity, almoft as foon as 
given to the world: the controverfy to which 
thefe fafpcions gave bir th, contributed to render them 
ente ) 
and fa alfo other circumftances, befides 
the fingular and fufpicious nature of their difcovery an 
publication, and the poetic merits which they ~poffefled, o 
were fuppofed to pellets which fixed on them the curiofity 
and intereft of men of philofophy and literature. They 
a a moft uncommon and Pr pao picture of 
man manners; a picture, which, if it were drawn from 
axure. would co — Pas the principe ys eae ce 
had deduced for the h of man hey alfo related 
events, not eafily reconeilecble to the ei celeste hiftory 
OsS 
of the country, where the {cene was laid: on thefe accountss 
the intereft of almoft all claffes was fixed upon them; the ey 
were admired by the lovers of poetry, who, in their admira. 
tion, had not time or inclination to inveftigate their authen- 
ticity; while by thofe who viewe them more coolly and 
Sender mk and who coul 
a fore the 
were ae againft their claim 
to i confidered as oems of Offian. The intereft 
which they excited was ftill farther increafed, by the High- 
landers taking up the queftion, both refpe&ing their authen- 
ticity and their poetical merits, as one in which their honour 
and pride were immediately and deeply concerned: they 
could 2 age or quietly agers the belief that Offian 
wrote 3 
ancient rageeay she sith pa aie ae hiftories hand ns 
the names of Goll 
aie ee even and 
poems of the Highlands, aps the paffages in the latter, 
which defcribe Ireland as the native country of Offian, 
Fingal, &c. have been roe for controverfial purpofes: it 
is needlefs to cite all thefe paffages: the following, from 
Erfe poems, colle@ed in the Highlands by Dr. Young, 
bifhop of Clonmore, and cee m, the ff volume of the 
Infh TranfaGtions, may fu 
n of Dargo, hs agi fon 
Int mbat of Con, t 
of Mor i of Ire- 
nd:’? this Perth edition of t a is iWchanged 
into ‘¢ the nobles and great chieftains.’ bat of 
fgar, and Ilan fon of the king of Spain, for ‘the Fions 
Ofgar, 
of Ireland; *? the Perth edition fut ftitutes the “ noble Fions,” 
In a poem called the Death of Ofcar, of which Macpher- 
fon made ufe in the firft book of Temora, Ireland is iS CX 
prefsly mentioned as the country of that prince: * The 
death of Ofcar grieved my heart, our lofs is great in = 
prin 
