[In the following essay, Richardson answers some objections previously raised regarding the authenticity of Ossian, and asserts that there is no internal evidence which invalidates the authenticity of the poems.]

The period which has been generally assigned as the æra of Ossian, is the beginning of the third century. It is admitted, that this deduction can be made only from the internal evidence of the poems which have been ascribed to him. In a case like this, we can expect no collateral evidence from the contemporary writers of Greece and Rome, to whom the language of the Caledonians was unknown, and by whom they themselves were accounted barbarous.

I am therefore disposed to consider, in the same light that Mr Laing does, the attempt which has been made, by Mr Macpherson, to connect these poems with the history of the Romans. What, indeed, can be more improbable, as Gibbon long ago remarked, than "that the son of Severus, who, in the Caledonian war, was known only by the name of Antoninus, should be described, in these Poems, by a nickname invented four years afterwards, and scarcely used by the Romans, till after the death of the emperor." I may add, that nothing can be more absurd than to suppose, that the inhabitants of Rome should bestow, upon their emperor, a nickname of Celtic etymology.' On Mr Macpherson's connection of this period with Roman history, by supposing Caros to have been the usurper Carausius, I lay equally little stress. But, because Mr Macpherson, the translator of these poems, has chosen to imagine such connections, does it follow, that the authenticity of Ossian must stand or fall with their fate? Because Mr Macpherson has thought it proper to identify the Balclutha of Ossian with the Alcluith of Bede, does it follow, that there was no Balclutha; and that there is no foundation for the interesting account of the adventures of Carthon?

It must be observed, however, that it is by no means a consequence of these admissions, that the events, related in the poems ascribed to Ossian, did not take place about the period which has been generally assigned; that is, whilst the Romans occupied that part of Caledonia which lies to the south of the wall of Antoninus. We have the authentic evidence of Roman history, and of Roman remains still existing, to prove, that, even in the time of Agricola, the northern and western Caledonians—the people to whom these poems relate, and amongst whom they are said to have been composed—were a numerous and warlike race of men; and that their incursions into the Roman province, in that, and during the succeeding periods of Roman domination, were frequent and formidable.

In the poems, accordingly, we find, as might have been expected, many express allusions to these encounters between the natives and the Roman invaders. But who was the hero "of the fierce eye;" or who was "Caros king of ships," we cannot hope to be able, at this distance of time, precisely to determine.

It may be remarked, that the very name of Romans does not once occur in these poems. As individuals are always denominated, by Ossian, from their personal qualities,—a practice common amongst all nations in the earlier stages of society,—so nations and countries, mountains and rivers, receive their appellations from the circumstances by which they are peculiarly distinguished. The Romans are, in these poems, called "the Strangers:" one country is denominated Innis-uaine, or, "the Green Isle;" and another Erin, or "the Western Isle:" a hill is denominated Gormal, or "the Blue Hill:" and a river, Carun, "the Winding Stream;" or Balbha, "the Silent."

But, except in the few,—the very few instances, in which these places have retained their ancient denomination, amidst the intermixture of tribes, and the shifting of possessions and interests, which have taken place, during the lapse of more than fourteen centuries, it is now almost impossible to determine what country, or mountain, or river, is spoken of in these poems. That Erin is Ireland; Lochlin, some part of Scandinavia; and Morven, (Morbheinn,) the mountainous part of Scotland, the proper kingdom of Fingal, we may indeed conclude with a degree of probability approaching to certainty.

Mr Laing, indeed, with his usual gratuitousness of assertion, observes, on this subject, "that Lochlin was a name unknown till the ninth century."—That the Celtic appellation of a country, with which only the Celts had intercourse, should not have been adopted by Greek and Roman writers, is precisely what might have been expected. But, in refutation of Mr Laing's assertion, it fortunately happens, that we have a Gaelic manuscript, which Mr Astle has ascertained to have been written in the ninth or tenth century; and which appears to have been composed between the fifth and eighth centuries, in which the name of Lochlin, as applied in these poems, frequently occurs. Of this valuable manuscript an interesting account is given, by Dr Donald Smith, in the Appendix to Mr Mackenzie's Report on the Poems of Ossian. Dr Smith observes also, that, in a Welsh treatise, written about the end of the seventh century, we read, "that the warlike Irp conducted a fleet to Llychlyn"; on which Mr Edward Llhuyd remarks, that, "by this name, we understand Sweden, Denmark, and Norway."²

Mr Laing also seems to lay much stress on his detection of Innis-tore, (in Dr Smith's collection, Innis-ore,) as the denomination of the Orkneys, to which Fingal is said to have made some noted expeditions. Mr Laing learns, from Solinus, that, in A. D. 240, "the Orkneys were altogether uninhabited." But, on what grounds he prefers, in this instance, the authority of Solinus to the unquestionable testimony of Tacitus, it is impossible to conjecture. That we may judge of Solinus's knowledge of the Orkney isles, it may be proper to observe, that he states their number to be three, instead of thirty, as given by Pomponius Mela; and forty, as given by Pliny. Solinus adds, that they were uninhabited. But Tacitus expressly informs us, that the fleet of his father-in-law, Agricola, in its circumnavigation of Britain, "first discovered and conquered the Orkneys." And, if Tacitus can be credited in any thing, he surely must, in this account of a transaction conducted by so near a relative, and with whom, too, he lived at Rome, for many years after, in habits of the most familiar intercourse. We find Juvenal, about the same period, and in allusion to the same event, speaking of the

     —Modo CAPTAS
Orcadas, et minima contentos nocte Britannos.

But is it to be supposed, that the historian should relate, and the poet allude, to the conquest and capture of islands which had no inhabitants?³

It does not appear, then, that any material circumstance, in the Poems themselves has a tendency to invalidate the opinion that they are to be referred to the period in which the Romans occupied Caledonia, and even to the commencement or middle of the third century. I speak only of the Poems; of Macpherson's dreams I make no account.

It is true, as has been said, that it is only from the internal evidence, furnished by the Poems themselves, that we can infer the period of their composition. But what other source of evidence could we, in this instance, expect? Could it be expected that Tacitus, or Herodian, or Dion Cassius, should inform us, that there existed, amongst the Caledonians, certain poems, of very superior merit, composed in the Celtic language, the preservation and transmission of which, to posterity, would well reward the labours of a Greek or Roman antiquary? No, surely. The contempt, in which the Greeks and Romans had been accustomed to hold all other nations, whom they stigmatized with the epithet of barbarous, was an effectual bar to their favourable opinion; or even to a just appreciation or report of whatever merit they might possess, either in science or literature. Of all the writers of antiquity, Julius Cæsar seems to have displayed the greatest candour, and the fairest spirit of liberality, in giving an account of the nations esteemed barbarous; an eminent instance of which we have, in the view which he has given us, of the high attainments which the ancient philosophers of Britain had made, in different departments of science.⁴

I am sufficiently aware, that, until the antiquity and authenticity of these Poems can be previously established, no argument can be drawn from the internal evidence which they afford, concerning the period in which they were composed. But the extent of my inference is limited accordingly. I would only infer, that nothing has been adduced from ancient history, or even from the Poems themselves, which can be fairly considered as contradictory to the position, that they belong to the period, which has been assigned: and, still further, I would argue, that, if it can be proved, from other considerations, that these Poems are really ancient, this, and no other, is the period, to which they are to be referred.

It is in this view of the subject, that I think it almost unnecessary to advert to the proofs of their spuriousness adduced, by Mr Laing, from the history of the middle ages. In the name of Fingal's friend, Cathula, Mr Laing "easily discerns" Ketil, the son of Biarno, who lived in the beginning of the tenth century. But, in order to assist his readers in "discerning" this, he informs them, that Cathula must be pronounced Cat-huil. Mr Laing, in this, as well as in many other articles of Gaelic erudition, has been misled. He must suffer himself to be informed, that Cathula is pronounced, in the Gaelic, Ca-huil, and signifies, "the Eye of Battle." An objection, of seemingly greater consequence, is drawn from Ossian's assigning a name of Celtic etymology (Carrick-thura) to the palace of the king of the Orkneys, "where, at this day," he adds, "all the names of places are Norwegian or Gothic." But, it may be asked, whether the inhabitants of these isles were Goths, and their language the Gothic, in the second and third centuries? or, if they were, is it not most probable, that the names, by which places and persons, in the Orkneys, were designated by the Caledonians, were of Celtic origin; and imposed, by the Caledonians, according to the distinctive characters of the places or persons, in the usual manner of early nations, and of early times? In the writings of the ancients of Greece and Rome, we know, that nothing was more common than to denominate places and persons, not by the names given them in their own country or language, but by names constructed according to the genius of the language into which they were transferred. Thus, Ctesias, a Greek, in his Assyrian history,—borrowed from records, which he found in the court of Persia,—uniformly gives to the kings, not their Assyrian names, which he found in the record, but names of Greek etymology, which he considered as of similar import. Diodorus Siculus, in his account of Egypt, gives to the heroes of that country, not their Egyptian names, but Greek names, which he considered as bearing the same signification. This practice, so common amongst ancient writers, seems to arise naturally from that state of society, in which denominations are given to individuals, which are designed to be descriptive of their peculiar qualities.

Notes

¹ Caracul, in Gaelic, signifies, "Of the Fierce Eye;" but we know, that the name of Caracallus, or Caracalla, was given, at Rome, to the emperor, on account of a garment of a particular form, and of a similar denomination, which he had introduced there.—See Spartian, in Antonino Caracallo, p. 159.

² To shew the fallacy of this mode of reasoning, from the circumstance, that the name of Lochlin does not occur in any author, with which Mr Laing is acquainted, I shall only mention, that, had the small, but valuable, treatise of Tacitus, De Moribus Germanorum, been lost, like many other ancient compositions, in the wreck of time, the name of Englishmen (Angli) could not have been found, at this day, in any other author, prior to the period of Gregory the Great.

³ Baeda indeed relates, (Histor. Eccles. ch. 3.) "that the Orkneys were added to the Roman empire, by Claudius, during his noted expedition to Britain." But what is the value of Bada's authority, compared with the "modo captas" of Juvenal, and the "incognitas ad id tempus Orcadas" of Tacitus?

⁴ See Cams. de Bell. Gull. lib. vi. c. 14.