A DISSERTATION CONCERNING THE ANTIQUITY, &c. of the POEMS O. F OSSIAN the Son of FINGAL. NQUIRIES into the antiquities of nations afford more pleasure than any real advantage to mankind. The ingenious may form fyftems of history on probabilities and a few facts; but at a great diftance of time, their accounts must be vague and uncertain. The infancy of ftates and kingdoms is as deftitute of great events, as of the means of tranfmitting them to pofterity. The arts of polished life, by which alone facts can be preferved with certainty, are the production of a well-formed community. It is then hiftorians begin to write, and public tranfactions to be worthy remembrance. The actions of former times are left in obfcurity, or magnified by uncertain traditions. Hence it is that we find fo much much of the marvellous in the origin of every nation; pofterity being always ready to believe any thing, however fabulous, that reflects honour on their ancestors. The Greeks and Romans were remarkable for this weakness. They fwallowed the most abfurd fables concerning the high antiquities of their refpective nations. Good hiftorians, however, rofe very early amongst them, and tranfmitted, with luftre, their great actions to pofterity. It is to them that they owe that unrivalled fame they now enjoy, while the great actions of other nations are involved in fables, or loft in obfcurity. The Celtic nations afford a ftriking inftance of this kind. They, though once the mafters of Europe from the mouth of the river Oby *, in Ruffia, to Cape Finifterre, the western point of Gallicia in Spain, are very little mentioned in hiftory. They trufted their fame to tradition and the fongs of their bards, which, by the viciffitude of human affairs, are long fince loft. Their ancient language is the only monument that remains of them; and the traces of it being found in places fo widely diftant from each other, ferves only to fhew the extent of their ancient power, but throws but throws very little light on their history. Plin. 1. 6, OF Of all the Celtic nations, that which poffeffed old Gaul is the most renowned; not perhaps on account of worth fuperior to the rest, but for their wars with a people who had hiftorians to tranfmit the fame of their enemies, as well as their own, to pofterity. Britain was firft peopled by them, according to the testimony of the best authors; its fituation in respect to Gaul makes the opinion probable; but what puts it beyond all difpute, is that the fame customs and language prevailed among the inhabitants of both in the days of Julius Cæfar †. THE Colony from Gaul poffeffed themselves, at firft, of that part of Britain which was next to their own country; and fpreading northward, by degrees, as they increased in numbers, peopled the whole ifland. Some adventurers paffing over from thofe parts of Britain that are within fight of Ireland, were the founders of the Irish nation: which is a more probable fory than the idle fables of Milefian and Gallician colonies. Diodorus Siculus mentions it as a thing well known in his time, that the inhabitants of Ireland were originally Britons; and his teftimony is unquestionable, when we confider * Cæf. 1. 5. Tac. Agric. 1. 1. c. 2. Pomp. Mel, Tacitus. Diod. Sic. 1. 5. a 2 + Cæfar. that, that, for many ages, the language and cuftoms of both nations were the fame. TACITUS was of opinion that the ancient Caledonians were of German extract. By the language and cuftoms which always prevailed in the North of Scotland, and which are undoubtedly Celtic, one would be tempted to differ in opinion from that celebrated writer. The Germans, properly fo called, were not the fame with the ancient Celta. The manners and cuftoms of the two nations were fimilar; but their language different. The Germans are the genuine defcendants of the ancient Dax, afterwards well known by the name of Daci, and paffed origi-. nally into Europe by the way of the northern countries, and fettled beyond the Danube, towards the vast regions of Tranfilvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia; and from thence advanced by degrees into Germany. The Celta, it is certain, fent many colonies into that country, all of whom retained their own laws, language, and cuftoms; and it is of them, if any colonies came from Germany into Scotland, that the ancient Caledonians were defcended. Bur whether the Caledonians were a colony of the Celtic Germans, or the fame with the Gauls * Strabo, 1. 7. Cæf. 1. 6. Liv. 1. 5. Tac. de mor. Germ. tha t |