to which it has no claim.

On the other hand, chapter xi. purports only to be a representation
of the feelings excited by this literature, and for every assertion
there is authority in the cycle. Chapter xii., however, is a
translation from the original. Every idea which it contains, except
one, has been taken from different parts of the Ossianic poems, and
all together expressthe graver attitude of the mind of Ossian
towards the new faith. That idea, occurring in a separate paragraph
in the middle of the page, though prevalent as a sentiment
throughout all the conversations of Ossian with St. Patrick, has
been, as it stands, taken from a meditation on life by St.
Columbanus, one of the early Irish Saints--a meditation which, for
subtle thought, for musical resigned sadness, tender brooding
reflection, and exquisite Latin, is one of the masterpieces of
mediaeval composition.

To the casual reader of the bardic literature the preservation of
an ordered historical sequence, amidst that riotous wealth of
imaginative energy, may appear an impossibility. Can we believe
that forestine luxuriance not to have overgrown all highways, that
flood of superabundant song not have submerged all landmarks? Be
the cause what it may, the fact remains that they did not. The
landmarks of history stand clear and fixed, each in its own place
unremoved; and through that forest-growth the highways of history
run on beneath over-arching, not interfering, boughs. The age of
the predominance of Ulster does not clash with the age of the
predominance of Tara; the Temairian kings are not mixed with the
contemporary Fians. The chaos of the Nibelungen is not found here,
nor the confusion of the Scotch ballads blending all the ages into