OSSIAN. 
ballads were written only a few centuries before letters were 
0. g the Gothic nations ; and conde ae 
prefervation (adependenty of the circumftance he 
fho ) cann 
fuppofed Settee of 8 poe 
When Macpherfon firft publitiea his fragments in 1760, 
in order to prove their antiquity, he afferts, that «the diction 
is very obfolete, and differs widely from the ftyle of fuch 
poems, as have been written in the fame language two or 
ighland sedan in their 
Report, make ufe of a fimilar argument; “nom ition 
verfant in thofe eae for the peer n of Homer or 
Virgil; ;” and yet, in the fame Report, i it is ftated, that the lan- 
ground : 
is {uch as no modern could poffibly write, then they could 
not have been tranfmitted, either in manufcript or tradition ; 
for, as Mr. Laing obferves, * that the poems were preferved 
by oral tradition, in an obfolete dition, or, in other words, 
a diale& already difufed by the people, is alone fufficient to 
onfute their authenticity.’ If the poems are ftill current 
and Sonulae in the Highlands, they muft be underftood; if 
underftood, they muft be written in a language familiar and 
fimilar to “eda Gaelic 5 3 and if written in this language, 
they might — been for rged, 
. The poems of Offian, as ‘publifhed by Macpherfon, 
are very diffimilar, in their fentiments and character, from 
other poems written in the fame ftate of fociety. Dr. Blair, 
in his Critical Differtation, after quoting the funeral fong of 
Radnor Lodbrog (alnead’y referred to) obferves, ‘ this is 
xpect from a barbarous nation ; 
fome of Olaus’ noes. highly metaphorical and figured. 
when we open the works of Offian, a very different fcene 
aa ia When we turn from the poetry of Lodbrog 
to that of Offfan, it is lke ep) tiga a favage defert to a 
fertile and cultivated. coun-r ight have been fup- 
efined and civilized than the Goths; 
and that this fupertor eaaceen and civilization were owing 
to the eftablifhment of the Druids among them. Let us 
grant, for amoment, that the Celtic nations were thus diftin- 
guifhed above the Goths; ftiil this will not account for the 
chara¢ter of Offian’s poetry ; no ftate of fociety, but that in 
if they were farther advanced 
, in knowledge and vie than the Goths, might have 
produced poetry free, in a great meafure, from that fero- 
cious fpirit, and from that wildnefs, harfhnefs, and trregu- 
larity, which Blair notices in the death fong of Radnor 
Lodbrog; but it would {till have retained many of the marks 
‘a a barbarous age. But the poetry of Offian, a: publifhed 
by bie tact ae is not only unlike that of the Goths, but 
it is as unlike that Gaelic poetry, which is known to be 
genuine. ‘The ie ter, as given to the world by Dr. 
the Highland Society, &c. agre 
idea which has always been entertained of the pee) of a 
ftyle of it is very unequal; ‘* fometimes 
tame an 
avage and unenlightened, we 
doubt the authenticity of Offian’s poems. 
e omiffion of religion, and of = oe and cir- 
cumftantial notice of the manners and cuftoms of the age, 
is a ftrong prefumption againit their authenticity. Mac- 
pherfon was ignorant of the gods and rites of the Caledo- 
nians: according to his hiftorical theory, the Druids had 
been expelled by the Fingalians ; and it was not therefore 
to be fuppofed, that the latter would adopt the religion of 
the former: he had, therefore, no other alternative but to 
f that 
ample and more accurate, from which the manners, ay aon 
and mede of life of ancient nations can be drawn, than fro 
their ballads: but on thefe points Offian’s poems ee See a 
aude and fufpicious filence. In the time of Macpherfon’s 
oes, hunting was the principal amufement ; and yet the 
wild cattle, the wolves, and the boars, are never mentioned. 
The incoufiftency of the events related i int Bi rnd 
with the Roman h 
e 
f whem their fettlement was named Dalriada:”? hence it is an 
hiftorical fa&t that there was not a Hi ghlander in Scotland 
of the prefent race, at the beginning af the er d 
Fingal. This obfervation will derive great additional weight, 
publithe 
208, and with Caraufius in 286; and his reign and exploits 
are prolonged in the Temora to the battle of Gabhra in 
296; ‘with the fame propriety (Mr. Laing obferves), as 
if a youthful patriot, who refifted a union in the Scotch par- 
liament, were again introduced at the end of the century, 
oppofing a union with Ireland, in.the Britifh fenate.”” Ca. 
racalla, the fon of Severus (to ufe the words of Gibbon) * is 
10 defcrised 
