دمه 2

One of the chief improvements, in this edition, is the care taken in arranging the poems in the order of time; so as to form a ki..d of regular history of the age to which they relate. The writer has now resigned them forever to their fate. That they have been well received by the public appears from an extensive sale; that they shall continue to be well received, he may venture to prophesy, without the gift of that inspiration to which poets lay claim. Through the medium of version upon version, they retain, in foreign languages, their native character of simplicity and energy. uine poetry, like gold, loses little, when properly trans fused; but when a composition cannot bear the test of a literal version, it is a counterfeit which ought not to pass current. The operation must, however, be per formed with skilful hands. A translator who cannot equal his original, is incapable of expressing its beau ties.

London,
Aug. 15, 1773.

Gen

69.62

INQUIRIES into the antiquities of nations afford more pleasure than any real advantage to mankind. The ingenious may form systems of history on probabilities and a few facts; but, at a great distance of time, their accounts must be vague and uncertain. The infancy of states and kingdoms is as destitute of great events, as of the means of transmitting them to posterity. The arts of polished life, by which alone facts can be preserved with certainty, are the production of a wellformed community. It is then historians begin to write, and public transactions to be worthy remem brance. The actions of former times are left in ob scurity, or magnified by uncertain traditions. Hence it is that we find so much of the marvellous in the ori gin of every nation; posterity being always ready te believe any thing, however fabulous, that reflects hono on their ancestors.

The Greeks and Romans were remarkable for this weakness. They swallowed the most absurd fables concerning the high antiquities of their respective nations. Good historians, however, rose very early

amongst them, and transmitted, with lustre, their great
actions to posterity. It is to them that they owe that
unrivalled fame they now enjoy; while the great ac-
tions of other nations are involved in fables, or lost in
obscurity. The Celtic nations afford a striking instance
of this kind. They, though once the masters of Eu-
rope, from the mouth of the river Oby, in Russia, to
Cape Finisterre, the western point of Gallicia, in Spain,
are very little mentioned in history. They trusted
their fame to tradition and the songs of their bards,
which, by the vicissitude of human affairs, are long
since lost. Their ancient language is the only monu-
ment that remains of them; and the traces of it being
found in places so widely distant from each other,
serves only to show the extent of their ancient power,
but throws very little light on their history.

Of all the Celtic nations, that which possessed old
Gaul is the most renowned: not perhaps on account of
worth superior to the rest, but for their wars with a
people who had historians to transmit the fame of their
enemies, as well as their own, to posterity. Britain
was first peopled by them, according to the testimony
of the best authors; its situation in respect to Gaul
makes the opinion probable; but what puts it beyond
all dispute, is, that the same customs and language
prevailed among the inhabitants of both in the days of
Julius Cæsar.

The colony from Gaul possessed themselves, at first, of that part of Britain which was next to their own country; and spreading northward by degrees, as they increased in numbers, peopled the whole island. Some adventurers passing over from those parts of Britain that are within sight of Ireland, were the founders of the Irish nation which is a more probable story than the idle fables of Milesian and Gallician colonies. Diodorus Siculus mentions it as a thing well known in

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his time, that the inhabitants of Ireland were originally Britons; and his testimony is unquestionable, when we consider that, for many ages, the language and customs of both nations were the same.

Tacitus was of opinion that the ancient Caledonians were of German extract; but even the ancient Germans themselves were Gauls. The present Germans, properly so called, were not the same with the ancient Celta. The manners and customs of the two nations were similar; but their language different. The Ger mans are the genuine descendants of the ancient Scan dinavians, who crossed, at an early period, the Baltic. The Celta, anciently, sent many colonies into Germany, all of whom retained their own laws, language, and customs, till they were dissipated, in the Roman empire; and it is of them, if any colonies came from Germany into Scotland, that the ancient Caledonians were descended.

But whether the ancient Caledonians were a colony of the Celtic Germans, or the same with the Gauls that first possessed themselves of Britain, is a matter of no moment at this distance of time. Whatever their origin was, we find them very numerous in the time of Julius Agricola, which is a presumption that they were long before settled in the country. The form of their government was a mixture of aristocracy and monarchy, as it was in all the countries where the Druids feet bore the chief sway. This order of men seems to have been formed on the same principles with the Dac.. I tyli, Idæ, and Curetes of the ancients. Their pretended intercourse with heaven, their magic and divination, were the same. The knowledge of the Druids in natural causes, and the properties of certain things, the fruits of the experiments of ages, gained them a mighty reputation among the people. The esteem of the populace soon increased into a veneration for the or

der; which these cunning and ambitious priests took care to improve, to such a degree, that they, in a inanner, engrossed the management of civil, as well as religious matters. It is generally allowed, that they did not abuse this extraordinary power; the preserving the character of sanctity was so essential to their influ ence, that they never broke out into violence or oppression. The chiefs were allowed to execute the laws, but the legislative power was entirely in the hands of the Druids. It was by their authority that the tribes were united, in times of the greatest danger, under one head. This temporary king, or Vergobretus, was chosen by them, and generally laid down his office at the end of the war. These priests enjoyed long this extraordinary privilege among the Celtic nations who lay beyond the pale of the Roman empire. It was in the beginning of the second century that their power among the Caledonians began to decline. The traditions concerning Trathal and Cormac, ancestors to Fingal, are full of the particulars of the fall of the Druids a singular fate it must be owned, of priests who had once established their superstition.

The continual wars of the Caledonians against the Romans, hindered the bettor sort from initiating themselves, as the custom formerly was, into the order of the Druids. The precepts of their religion were confined to a few, and were not much attended to by a people inured to war. The Vergobretus, or chief magistrate, was chosen without the concurrence of the nierarchy, or continued in his office against their will. Continual power strengthened his interest among the ribes, and enabled him to send down, as hereditary to his posterity, the office he had only received himself by election.

On occasion of a new war against the "king of the world," as tradition emphatically calls the Roman em