Page:Poems of Ossian.djvu/61

Rh From chemical and geographical allusions in the "War of Inis-thona" (Isle of the Wave) the critic discovers the scene of that poem in the volcanic Iceland (anciently Eisland, Isle of the Sea); and he finds confirmation in the existence of Celtic monuments said to have been found upon the shores of that country by the Norse discoverers in 874. In the same way, often with great minuteness of detail, Dr. Waddell identifies the scenes of most of Ossian's poems. In the course of his criticism he uses modern information to expose the fallacy of many of Laing's assumptions; and he answers the calumnies of Pinkerton by deductions from that historian's own pages. He meets the objection of vagueness which has been brought against the authenticity of Ossian, by filling several leaves with details of Celtic life and manners gathered from the poems; and he shows, in every instance in which comparison is possible, that the facts poetically referred to by Ossian fit with Roman history as exactly as the cog-wheel does to the pinion of machinery. Altogether, he concludes, the compositions of the Gaelic bard afford an authentic and unique glimpse into the otherwise unknown history of the Highlands during the decline of the Roman empire in the north.

Enough has been said in the foregoing pages to indicate the various arguments which have been