Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

people employed in the expedition against "them. And because Tacitus does not men❝tion that any intercourse subsisted between the "north of Scotland and Scandinavia, or that the "vessels of the Highlanders were provided "with sails, Mr. Laing concludes, that they never passed into Scandinavia in a single ship, nor in

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

deed, had any vessels capable of carrying "them over; although it is allowed, on all hands, that the Highlanders were in the con"stant habit of passing from the main land to the islands, and to the north of Ireland; and any

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

one acquainted with the tempestuous seas "which lash the northern coasts of Scotland "and Ireland, will be convinced, that a vessel, "capable of living in them, would have little "to fear in crossing over to the mouth of the "Baltic. Such are the conclusive detections from "the Roman history and middle ages.

"Another class of detections is from tradi"tion; and here Mr. Laing thinks he has Ossian

16

fairly, because Mallet and Hume seem to be "of his opinion. Mallet may be perfectly cor"rect, when he affirms, that the common class " of mankind never bestow a thought on any of "their progenitors beyond their grandfathers; "but had he been in the smallest degree ac

[blocks in formation]

66

"quainted with the manners of the Highlanders "of Scotland, he would have known, that the "most common peasant of the pure and unmixed race, can always count at least six or seven generations back; that this knowledge of his " ancestors is his proudest boast; and that the genealogy of the chieftains was, in particular, preserved with the most scrupulous venera❝tion. Among such a people, were the poems "which celebrated the most glorious actions of "their ancestors, likely to be consigned to neglect?"

66

66

66

66

Hume, indeed, alleges it to be utterly im"possible, that so many verses could have been "preserved by oral tradition, during fifty gene"rations, among a rude and uncivilized people; "and adds, in support of this opinion, his fa"mous dogma, that where a supposition is so con

66

66

trary to common sense, (in other words common

experience) any positive evidence of it ought ne"ver to be regarded. Hume probably uttered "this opinion before he was taught by Camp"bell's Essay on Miracles, that positive evidence "is sufficient to prove the most positive dogma of "the most subtle sophist, to be positive nonsense, "It is remarkable, however, that such sagacious inquirers as Mr. Hume and Mr. Laing should "not have perceived, that the rudeness of the Highlanders,

66

66

46

"Highlanders, which they so much insist upon, "is the strongest circumstance against their own argument. If songs, recounting the exploits "of their ancestors, can be preserved for a long course of years in any nation, surely it is among a people who account warlike glory the only object of ambition; who look upon their "ancestors with a veneration approaching to idolatry; who have no intercourse with stran

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

gers-no change of objects to awaken various passions, and distract their attention; who, in "the intervals of repose, recite their heroic

66

་་

songs, as the highest enjoyment of their con"vivial hours; who have no other means of preserving these highly esteemed songs but by memory; who have a particular class of the "nation, their bards, set apart for this express

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

purpose, and valued according to the number "of those songs which they can recite.-Such

[ocr errors]

were the Highlanders of Scotland, down to "the time of the union with England; and yet "Mr. Laing thinks it utterly absurd to suppose, "that so many verses could have been preserved by memory among them, when we meet with

66

66

[ocr errors]

no such thing, even in the civilized world, among people whose attention is distracted by a thousand cares and a thousand pleasures, and "who are regardless of committing to memory

66

H

"what

" what they can at any time have recourse to "in a printed book. But he should have been

66

more sure of facts, before he asserted that such “ stretches of memory had not occurred in the "civilized world. He should have known, that "previous to the invention of printing, it was "usual to commit to memory, not only many "thousand verses, but even long prose dis66 courses, of celebrated orators. The Scaligers, " even in modern times, were not the only German scholars who could repeat the Eneid and "Iliad. Even in regard to the Psalms, of which "Mr. Laing asserts a very small portion has "ever been committed to memory, he should "have extended his inquiry to the old Scottish

66

66

66

dissenters, and among them he would have "found many, who could not only repeat the "Psalms of David, but a large portion of the "Old and New Testament.

Mrs. Grant informs us,* persons still living, remember a woman in Strathspey, who, though never taught to read, could recite the whole book of Psalms in the Gaelic translation, merely by hearing it read to her by others. If a class of men, who

* Page 356.

who made it the study of their whole lives to retain poems, aided by the modulation of numbers, could not recite as many as this old woman could psalms, they must have been stupid indeed.

Here the anonymous writer proves, that Ossian's compositions might have come down merely by oral tradition. When to the force of his arguments we add, that the natives were all along in possession of letters, neither the incredulous Hume, nor any other who allows the classics to be genuine remains of antiquity, will deny the possibility of these poems reaching to our times.

[ocr errors]

Macpherson observes, that the diction of "the poems of Ossian, is obsolete, and widely "different from more recent compositions; Mr.

66

Laing, from the mutability of language, infers, "that their preservation in an obsolete dialect "was impossible, as people would naturally, for "old words, substitute those more familiar to "them; and that the Gaelic language has undergone great changes, he considers as proved, by its difference from the present Irish, a page of "which

66

66

H 2

« PreviousContinue »