of a poor industrious family. The night had hardly fallen, and young and old gathered round the evening fire, when in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, the whole of this family, except the mother, were buried beneath a vaft mass of fnow. By what circumstance this poor woman escaped the fate of her devoted family, fhe was unable to explain; but she still wanders about the country, feemingly refigned to the will of Heaven. Proceeding by the banks of the Dochart to Killin, the hill called Stron-chlachan, the craggy heights of Finlairg, and the lofty wilds of Ben-laurs, with Loch-tay stretching its ample breadth along the base of these mountains, are feen, as grand and fimple parts of a magnificent whole. The traveller cannot fail of being pleased with the scenery about Killin. As he enters the village from the west, he observes the river Dochart rushing through rocky fragments, and dividing its waters among infulated precipices, over which it foams, and fweeps round two iflets covered with pines; then calmly seeks its way through green meadows and inclofures, till, meeting the flow-winding Locha in its course, both rivers fall filently into the bofom of the lake. Advanced as we now are into the interior parts of the highlands of Scotland, it may not be uninteresting to bring under confideration the character of the modern, contrafted with the habits and pursuits of the ancient inhabitants of thefe mountains. The former, we have opportunities of obferving as they pass by, or in our intercourse with them in the common concerns of life; at merry-meetings, or on more folemn occafions; but refpecting the latter, tradition, and what is imperfectly recorded in hiftory, must supply materials for the flight sketch about to be given. It It cannot but appear remarkable to a mind accustomed to reflection, that at the clofe of the eighteenth century, great portions of the islands of Britain and Ireland are inhabited by a race of people, in language and manners very diffimilar to thofe in other portions of these islands, that have experienced through many ages material and various changes with regard to invafions and their confequences. Driven to the mountainous regions of this island, the ancient inhabitants carried with them their language, their customs, and their manners; and it can hardly admit of doubt, that for a time these would be preferved with fuch fondness and facred regard to the memory of those who first fixed their habitations amid the inacceffible faftneffes of the Grampians, as to insure them a degree of permanence, the effects of which have come down to nearly our own times. On this reasonable conjecture, for it is no more, we must raise our hypothesis, and draw our conclufions from what appears leaft removed from truth and probability. But, it is a lamentable confideration, that the truth of history is but too often violated, even by our best historians; and certain it is, that, unless events are preserved as they exactly happened, and are recorded by the unerring hand of chronology, we ought ever to be cautious how we admit them as part of the history of human transactions. Thus much premised, let it ferve as a check on what follows. History hath its fabulous, ancient, and modern periods. Of the two former, much is fupplied by conjecture; but of the latter, known events speak for themselves. Of the fabulous and ancient history of the Hebrides, a confideraole part is but imperfectly handed down to us; and, as to the modern history, ftrictly fo called, much of it is but ill calculated to impress an impartial II impartial inquirer with favourable ideas of that magnanimity, regard to justice, and the higher attributes of humanity, faid to have obtained in a state of society fo celebrated in our fongs and traditional tales; in those particularly which are ascribed to Ofian, the fon of Fingal, the "king of woody Morven." Yet, from this remark, it is by no means to be inferred that due confideration is to be withheld from traditional hiftory; on the contrary, where oral recitations convey moral inftruction, as well as celebrate the actions of heroes, they ought ever to be regarded as the only mode of authentic information that a rude, unlettered people have of preferving an account of themselves to their pofterity. This, then, is their history; and, as hiftory is "philofophy teaching by example," fo, in like manner, oral tradition is calculated to raife in the mind a generous ambition to imitate the heroic deeds, and imbibe the noble glow of fentiment thereby celebrated. So far we may admit, with safety, the traditional history of our ancestors; but, to connect this with general history, as established on chronological order, is to err in the extreme. It is a vain attempt to ascertain the precife era of Offian. All nations bear teftimony to their own barbarity; and there is not any people, however rude, but have traditions of remote times, wherein their ancestors are celebrated either as heroes, or as deified beings, from whom they derive the luftre of an immortal name and divine origin. Examples of this are to be found in the hiftories of ancient nations, whose rude chain of probable incidents is all that the hiftorian has to guide him in his researches into the origin of those tribes, the founders of the Greek and Roman republics. Nor does he hefitate in adopting the poetical histories of the earlier periods of their affoci ation; and thence traces the progrefs of their civilization, through the various mazes of their military, commercial, and political advancement; as alfo that of their knowledge in the arts and sciences, to that point, beyond which, hitherto, a retrograde feries commences, and (lamentable reflection!) a rapid decline and eventual diffolution of empire takes place, till fcarcely a vestige remains to prove that fo great a nation flourished, so powerful a people existed. The scattered remnants of the Celtic nations that are still existing in the western parts of Britain and Ireland, retain, even at this day, fo much of their original peculiarity of manners, as manifestly to diftinguish them from other claffes of the inhabitants of these districts: and, till lately, love, friendship, and war, constituted the fole object of their pursuits. These are the distinguishing characteristics of a rude state of society. But we still live in an age wherein the arts of war and government are regarded as those best adapted to more advanced ftages of civilization than even the present. For man is confidered, constitutionally, as the butcher of his kind, or, at beft, a fighting-animal, whofe very nature partakes fo much of the noble affections which he has in common with the tyger, lion, bull, or dunghill-cock. It follows as a confequence, founded in the immutable laws of nature, that, as long as the world lafts, war will be the chief employment of man; and as government is a science neceffary to regulate the time and manner of fighting, as well as to provide for the means of protection and defence, there is no room to doubt that war and government will confitute the more honourable employments of a ftate dependant on fuch means for the maintenance of focial order. Why then call an age barbarous, barbarous, which is characterized by feuds, and conflicts, and depredations, and domeftic quarrels? If, for inftance, one nation goes to war with another, does either fcruple to use every means poffible to deftroy its adverfary? Wherein lies the difference between one tribe, or, as it is called among highlanders, one Clan going to war with another, and adopting every means the one can devife for the extirpation of the other, fo as to prevent farther moleftation, and enfure the comforts which arife from temporary fecurity, indemnification for the past, and fafety for the future?-But we muft defift, as there is no faying how far this argument might lead.—Let it suffice, that in all ages and countries it has appeared that war has found its advocates, and its practitioners, and supporters too. What wonder then, if among the favage wilds of Caledonia, a people, whofe chief glory was war, and all its concomitant perils, and who till very lately were distinguished by few other of the attributes of humanity, are still in fome measure attached to what feems fo far inherent in human nature, fighting and plunder?-And, if such be neceffary in a refined ftate of fociety, how much more so muft it be in a rude ftate? But to apologize for times of barbarity is not to the present purpose. The ancient Celts were divided into tribes, or claffes, or clans, as their defcendants are now called. Their bufinefs was war, and their religion druidifim. To the Druids fucceeded the Culdees; but the patriarchal state was materially altered when the feudal system obtained univerfally in Europe. These changes wrought many others, inimical to the ancient establishments among the Celts; and time and circumftances, continually operating on the living manners of a reduced people, haftened their downfall. Retaining Y 2 |