entlemen
and their friends, as the dragon in the Apocalypse emitted the great
flood which the earth swallowed up; and, when once fairly embarked upon
it, I could see no shore and find no bottom. And so at length, though
very unwillingly--for my cousin was very kind--I fairly mutinied and
struck work, just as he had begun to propose that, after mastering the
authenticity controversy, I should set myself to acquire Gaelic, in
order that I might be able to read Ossian in the original. My cousin was
not well pleased; but I did not choose to aggravate the case by giving
expression to the suspicion which, instead of lessening, has rather
grown upon me since, that as I possessed an English copy of the poems, I
had read the true Ossian in the original already. With Cousin George,
however, who, though strong on the authenticity side, liked a joke
rather better than he did Ossian, I was more free; and to him I ventured
to designate his brother's fine Gaelic copy of the poems, with a superb
head of the ancient bard affixed, as "The Poems of Ossian in Gaelic,
translated from the original English by their author." George looked
grim, and called me infidel, and then laughed, and said he would tell
his brother. But he didn't; and as I really liked the poems, especially
"_Temora_" and some of the smaller pieces, and could read them with more
real pleasure than the greater part of the Highlanders who believed in
them, I did not wholly lose credit with my cousin the merchant. He even
promised to present me with a finely bound edition of the "Elegant
Extracts," in three bulky octavo volumes, whenever I should have gained
my first prize at College; but I unluckily failed to qualify myself for
the gift; and my copy of the "Extracts" I had to purchase for myself ten
years after, at a book-stall, when working in the neighbourhood of
Edinburgh as a journeyman mason.

It is not every day one meets with so genuine a Highlander as my cousin
the merchant; and though he failed to inspire me with all his own
Ossianic faith and zeal, there were some of the little old Celtic
practices which he resuscitated _pro tempore_ in his father's household,
that I learned to like very much. He restored the genuine Highland
breakfasts; and, after hours spent in busy exploration outside, I found
I could as thoroughly admire the groaning table, with its cheese, and
its trout, and its cold meat, as even the immortal Lexicographer
himself. Some of the dishes, too, wh