THUS was this affembly continued, for the purpofe mentioned, from the time of Olbamb Fodhlah to this, and long after, and most of the records preserved and handed down, by them corrected, from the pagan as well as Chriftian poets and historians, are now preserved in the Codes or Pfalters of Tara, Cabel and others, mentioned before; and the names of their several authors, recorded by other bards, as they are mentioned by Dr. Keating; all which are but too much neglected at present, either for want of a fufficient number of men verfed in the Magogian language, or a fufficient tafte for fuch inquiries, in those that are acquainted with that noble tongue. I am, however, at this time, happy in the friendship of one who is a master of the language, and from whofe converfation I have profited much in my present work (Mr. W. Thomson, painter), an eminent member of the body of artists of London, and no less versed in polite literature besides, than in these arts themselves; an agreeable branch of which, he profeffes at present, with the applaufe due to one among the first of his profession.

Now Dr. Keating, when he quotes any of the ancient poets, from a number of whom he has collected part of the materials for compiling his history, he mentions few but what are now extant, or were under his own infpection when he wrote. Of these several records, he mentions those, in particular, which he could most rely upon as facred and true; and whenever he had recourfe to fuch as were most to be suspected of poetical fiction and liberty, he only made fuch parts of them fubfervient to his purpose, as concurred with the most authentic, in

matters of the greatest consequence, either in confirming the genealogies and fucceffions of monarchs, or fixing the chronology and different æras of historical facts.

Homer and Virgil, whofe compofitions are embellished with all the beauties and ornaments of poetry, had great fiction and invention, yet the ground of their noble tiffue was laid upon the basis of hiftorical facts.

THAT Troy once flourished, and was the envy of neighbouring nations, cannot be denied; that it was ruined by the Greeks may be justly lamented; and yet, with its hiftory, much fiction is blended by these famous poets. This is the cafe with the ancient Irish poets, who have all founded their poems upon true history and chronology, although they may have decked fome of them out with flights and invention, for the fake of elegance. Thefe poems, feveral of which the ancient bards of both Gomerians and Scythians had compofed in this language, long before it was altered from its appellation of the old Ionian tongue, into that dialect in which Homer's works appear, and which was many ages bringing about, were all couched in the fame lofty ftile which Homer is famous for; and, indeed, it was from their ancestors, the Pelafgians, that he had acquired his manner and stile; for those princes which he mentions as auxiliaries to the Trojans, were Scythian princes, and their bards have handed down accounts of this war, which are to be found in fome of the ancient Irish poems. They contain a great number of the most remarkable events of the earliest times, which are mentioned by other old hiftorians; several instances of which are among the manuscripts of Trinity-college library in Dublin;

extant.

Dublin; see the catalogue of the manuscripts of bishop Uber, communicated by Dr. George Brown, provost of that college, and printed at the end of the Bodleyan catalogue of manufcripts, in which are mentioned, marked 253, 113, a book in the Irish language, which, among others, has an account of the building of the tower of Babel; and the book of Ballymore, the fourth part of which is the Hiftory of the Wars of Troy, marked 255, 115. And the Irish poets of our times write in the very fame ftrain. It is the genius of these people, and their language is fufceptible of it more naturally than any other. There are numbers of them capable of compofing extemporaneous elogiums and poems, of confiderable length, upon any fubject, furprizingly elegant, and full of fine fentiments; a fpecimen of fuch compofitions was lately published in English, called Fingall. Now, upon mentioning this, I must take the liberty of making a fhort remark upon the opinions of fome gentlemen concerning those poems: it has been doubted whether they were originally in the Irish tongue, and even pofitively afferted, that Mr. M'Pherson was himself the author of them. In this fentiment, they have done that ingenious gentleman a very high honour, upon two accounts; the first is, that he must be a very great genius who is capable of being author of a work of so sublime a nature; for no one will deny, that his verfes have a true poetic fpirit, and that in the most eminent degree; and, fecondly, that the ftile and manner are truly his own, because it is extreamly different from the poetry of any other nation, that has come to our hands, or even of our own, for many centuries.

4

CHAP. VI. turies. And, indeed, from what I have feen and heard among the Irish, in their exhibitions upon this head, I cannot but join this gentleman in afcribing that work to the person he afferts to have been the author; in which, I hope, I do not in the least derogate from his merit, in the fpirited tranflation he has obliged the world with: for, it must be allowed, there are very few who understand that language so perfectly, as to be capable of putting it into English; or if they did, they might not have judgment enough to dress it up fo near the idiom of the original as he has done.

BUT, as a further proof that they are original Irish poems, I am acquainted with a gentleman of Ireland, who has by heart several of the stories, in both Fingall and Tanor, taught him in his youth in that language; who expressed much furprize, when he found them exactly agreeing with fome of those Mr. M'Pherson has tranflated. This gentleman fays, that many of the people in Ireland retain some of these very poems, which were handed down from time immemorial, in many families: and it is remarkable, that this gentleman was in the West Indies during the printing of these poems, from whence he did not return till they were published.

As to the authenticity of the feveral records now preferved of the Irish Hiftory, it cannot be difputed, because they were always fubmitted to a general inspection and a ftrict examination, before they were laid up. They are, as I mentioned above, to be seen at this time, and were collected from time to time by above two hundred poets and antiquaries, in the pay of the public. Some of

them,

them, especially fince the planting of Christianity in Ireland, were written by bishops and other great men, whose veracity can hardly be doubted; and it is well known, that the nation was, for a long feries of years, accounted an island of learned men; infomuch, that the youth of most of the European countries resorted to its seminaries for education, in all the branches of literature, and numbers of the learned profeffors of that kingdom were invited and encouraged into every country of Europe, to teach the sciences and improve their young men, of which more hereafter.

Camden, page 970, of Ireland, fays, "Ireland was "termed Sanctorum Patria, &c. for out of Ireland came "Cœlius Sedulius, a prieft, Columba, Columbanus, Colman, "Aidan, Gallus, Kilian, Maidulph, Brendan, and many "others, celebrated for their holy lives and learning. "Henry of Auxere is to be understood of these monks, in "this address of his to the emperor Carolus Calvus : "What should I speak of Ireland, which, flighting the "dangers by fea, tranfports great numbers of philofophers "into our country; and the most confiderable and emi"nent of thefe do voluntarily banish themselves, to attend "the most wife Solomon, with refpect and obedience ?"

Now it can never be supposed, that all these authors and profeffors were employed in writing fables, or that the proper inspectors of their works would be imposed upon by fabulous accounts, or mere poetic fiction, from men fo well esteemed, and fo generously rewarded for their performances; or that they would have the affurance to lay any matters before their judges, that could not stand.

the