Mr Campbell’s collections include most of the pieces that have been brought together in the same way, with such variations, of course, as must be looked for in the circumstances. He furnishes us with a version of the Lay of Diarmad (vol. iii., 50), having peculiar features of its own, but to a large extent identical with the versions of the Dean of Lismore and of Gillies. It is of much interest to compare this version, taken down within the last few years, with one taken down one hundred years ago, and another taken down three hundred and fifty years ago. The retentive power of human memory for generations is remarkably illustrated by the comparison. Mr Campbell also gives us “The Lay of Oscar,” “The Praise of Gaul,” “The Poem of Oscar,” and several other minor compositions, some of which had never before been printed. These, with Mr Campbell’s own disquisitions, are full of interest; but for the details we must refer the reader to Mr Campbell’s volumes. From all that has been written on the subject of these ancient Gaelic poems of Ossian, it is perfectly clear that Ossian himself is no creation of James Macpherson. His name has been familiar to the people both of the Highlands and Ireland, for a thousand years and more. “Oisian an deigh na Feinn,” _Ossian after the Fingalians_, has been a proverbial saying among them for numberless generations. Nor did Macpherson invent Ossian’s poems. There were poems reputed to be Ossian’s in the Highlands for centuries before he was born, and poems, too, which for poetic power and interest are unsurpassed; which speak home to the heart of every man who can sympathise with popular poetry marked by the richest felicities of diction; and which entitles them justly to all the commendation bestowed upon the poems edited by Macpherson. MODERN GAELIC LITERATURE. It will be seen that a large proportion of the existing Gaelic literature of the early period is poetical. Not that it is so altogether, by any means; and if any large amount of it had come down to us, there is no reason for believing that so large a share of it would be poetical. But the prose MS. writings of the ancient Gael have, with the few exceptions already referred to, perished; and have left us with such poetical compositions as adhered to the national memory. As we enter upon the era of printing, we are disposed to look for a more extensive literature, and no doubt we find it. But with the era of printing came the use of another language, and the Gaelic ceased to be the vehicle for carrying abroad the thoughts of the learned. Religion still continued to make use of its services, but it ceased to be the handmaid of science and philosophy.