BARD, a poet among the ancient Gauls and Britons, who celebrated the praises of heroes, with a view to inculcate virtue, and sometimes to terminate a difference between two armies at the point of en gagement. It is disputed in what the bards differed from the Druids ; some pretend that these were the priests and philosophers of the nation, and that those were only the poets and historians ; but it is more probable that Druid was a ge neral word, comprehending the priests, the judges, the instructors of youth, and the bards or poets. See DRIIID.
The bards were not only the poets, but the genealogists, biographers, and historians of those countries and ages. The genealogical sonnets of the Irish bards are still the chief foundations of the ancient history of Ireland. It was cus tomary for the bards to sing these compo sitions in the presence of their nobles, and at their chief festivals and solemni ties. In the Highlands of Scotland there are bards still in being, and considerable remains of many of the compositions of the old British bards still preserved ; but the most genuine, entire and valuable re mains of the works of the ancient bards, and perhaps the noblest specimen of un cultivated genius, if not the most sublime fragments of ancient poetry now extant, are the poems of Ossian the son of Fingal, a king of the Highlands, who flourished in the second or third century, lately collected by Mr. Macpherson, and by
him translated from the Erse or Gaelic language into English.
The reputation, influence, and power of this order of men were formerly very high ; they were courted by the great, and seated at the tables of princes. Their power in exciting the courage and rous ing the fury of armies is universally re corded, and generals have often confess ed themselves indebted for victory to their heroic strains. They were not un frequently chosen negotiators with the enemy, and the deeds of the day were in the evening recorded in their songs ; and the fame of their fallen heroes perpetuat ed by their praise.