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PROLIUM LODINIS

POEMA.

TOM. I.

CARMEN PRIMUM.

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INTRODUCTION

AND

PLAN OF THE WORK.

Ir has frequently been asserted, that the poetical works of Ossian, would never appear in the dialect in which they were said to have been originally composed; that the whole was a forgery, written in English, which never existed in any other form than the one in which it had been produced; and which in fact had no foundation in any other language, excepting some wandering ballads, of which hardly six lines could now be recited by any person of veracity. There cannot be a more satisfactory answer to such groundless assertions, than the work

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The greatest antagonist to the authenticity of Ossian was the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson. In his journey to the Western Islands, (edition 1798, p. 205,) he roundly asserts, "that the poems of Ossian never existed in any other form than that which "we have seen. That the editor or author never could show the "original, nor can it be shown by any other. That it is too long " to be remembered, and that the language formerly had nothing "written. That he (the editor) has doubtless inserted names that

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