The Scottish Gael; Or Celtic Manners, as Preserved Among the Highlanders. Ed. with Mem. and Notes by A. Stewart (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 Excerpt: ... followed their great predecessor as a model, but never approached the sublimity of "the voice of Cona." Many have studied his 'works," and a most successful imitator was Ailen Mac Euari. A modern bard in Glendochy, in Perthshire, and another in Glendovan, Argyle, after laborious attempts to catch the poetic lire of this prince of Celtic poets, gave up the pursuit.b The nearest approach was made by M'Intyre, whose works display true poetic feeling. The Highlanders can, however, detect the true Ossianic from other poetry, by its peculiar excellence, simplicity of construction, and grandeur of imagery. There were several Ossians in the profession of bardism, who nourished in times subsequent, but none ever rivalled their predecessor." Nor do the Highlanders swallow the poetic descriptions as strictly natural. They can well discriminate between hyperbole and plain narration, as in the instance of Civa dona, where the description is allowed by the most enthusiastic to be ideal. In matters of history, Doctor Mac Pherson admits that the bardic accounts are not altogether to be depended upon; but it is a fact that curious discoveries have been made in consequence of songs. Treasure buried for centuries has been recovered, and the poem of Cath Gabhra, commemorating the inter ment of Conan, a king, under a stone, inscribed in Ogham characters, the Irish academy made search and found it. It has been thought impossible for a language to remain unchanged for so great a length of time, and this objection has been urged with much vehemence, as an unanswerable argument against the antiquity of Gaelic poetry. In the second Chapter of the first volume, some of the causes b Smith's Gallic Antiquities. c From Colgan's Life of Saint Patrick, we find he had a convert called Oss...