RY DISCOURSE. 4 son, affirmed instituted for the purpose of leaving, with Consists in being regard to this matter, 'no hinge or loop to ly be the creed hang a doubt on,' has been laid before the wise, if, after public. As the Committee, in this investielegant Disser-gation, followed, in a great measure, that de Ossian,' all doubts line of conduct chalked out by David Hume have been taught to to Dr. Blair, we shall, previously to stating for ever ceased; since their precise mode of proceeding, make sese to believe, that num- veral large and interesting extracts from with delight to 'the voice the historian's two letters on this subject. have been happy, if, seeing 'I live in a place,' he writes, "where I 4, they had been content have the pleasure of frequently hearing jusis accompanied by Dr. Blair's tice done to your Dissertation, but never and sought to know no more. heard it mentioned in a company, where en, however, whose ardent love some one person or other did not express ses on all occasions paramount to his doubts with regard to the authenticity or consideration; and though the of the poems which are its subject, and I in search of it should dissolve often hear them totally rejected with disdain n, and turn a fruitful Eden into a and indignation, as a palpable and most wild, they would pursue it. For impudent forgery. This opinion has, indeed, se, and for the idly curious in literary become very prevalent among the men of "oblems, added to the wish of making this letters in London; and I can foresee, that w edition of "The Poems of Ossian' as in a few years the poems, if they continue ell-informed as the hour would allow, we to stand on their present footing, will be save here thought it proper to insert some thrown aside, and will fall into final oblivion. . count of a renewal of the controversy "The absurd pride and caprice of Macating to the genuineness of this rich trea-pherson himself, who scorns, as he pretends, re of poetical excellence. to satisfy any body that doubts his veraNearly half a century has elapsed since city, has tended much to confirm this gepublication of the poems ascribed by neral scepticism; and I must own, for my Macpherson to-Ossian, which poems part, that though I have had many partithen professed to have collected in the cular reasons to believe these poems genuine, i Gaelic during a tour through the more than it is possible for any Englishman Stern Highlands and Isles; but a doubt of letters to have, yet I am not entirely ir authenticity nevertheless obtained, without my scruples on that head. in their first appearance to this day think, that the internal proofs in favour of ntinued in various degrees to agitate the poems are very convincing: so they erary world. In the present year, are; but there are also internal reasons Report springing from an inquiry against them, particulary from the manners notwithstanding all the art with which you ne of the Highland have endeavoured to throw a vernish * on inquire into the that circumstance; and the preservation of of the Com-such long and such connected poems, by convener, or oral tradition alone, during a course of containing A Report of lety of Scotl and au eins of Ossian. ich the Re- • So in MS. You A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. instituted for the purpose of leaving, with regard to this matter, "no hinge or loop to hang a doubt on,' has been laid before the public. As the Committee, in this investigation, followed, in a great measure, that line of conduct chalked out by David Hume to Dr. Blair, we shall, previously to stating their precise mode of proceeding, make several large and interesting extracts from the historian's two letters on this subject. As Swift has, with some reason, affirmed that all sublunary happiness consists in being well deceived, it may possibly be the creed of many, that it had been wise, if, after Dr. Blair's ingenious and elegant Dissertation on 'the venerable Ossian,' all doubts respecting what we have been taught to call his works had for ever ceased; since there appears cause to believe, that numbers who listened with delight to the voice of Cona,' would have been happy, if, seeing 'I live in a place,' he writes, 'where I their own good, they had been content have the pleasure of frequently hearing juswith these Poems accompanied by Dr. Blair's tice done to your Dissertation, but never judgment, and sought to know no more. heard it mentioned in a company, where There are men, however, whose ardent love some one person or other did not express of truth rises on all occasions paramount to his doubts with regard to the authenticity every other consideration; and though the of the poems which are its subject, and 1 first step in search of it should dissolve often hear them totally rejected with disdain the charin, and turn a fruitful Eden into a and indignation, as a palpable and most barren wild, they would pursue it. For impudent forgery. This opinion has, indeed, these, and for the idly curious in literary become very prevalent among the men of problems, added to the wish of making this letters in London; and I can foresee, that new edition of "The Poems of Ossian' as in a few years the poems, if they continue well-informed as the hour would allow, we to stand on their present footing, will be have here thought it proper to insert some thrown aside, and will fall into final oblivion. account of a renewal of the controversy "The absurd pride and caprice of Macrelating to the genuineness of this rich trea-pherson himself, who scorns, as he pretends, sure of poetical excellence. Nearly half a century has elapsed since the publication of the poems ascribed by Mr. Macpherson to-Ossian, which poems he then professed to have collected in the original Gaelic during a tour through the Western Highlands and Isles; but a doubt of their authenticity nevertheless obtained, and from their first appearance to this day has continued in various degrees to agitate the literary world. In the present year, 'A Report springing from an inquiry to satisfy any body that doubts his veracity, has tended much to confirm this general scepticism; and I must own, for my part, that though I have had many particular reasons to believe these poems genuine, more than it is possible for any Englishman of letters to have, yet I am not entirely without my scruples on that head. You think, that the internal proofs in favour of the poems are very convincing: so they are; but there are also internal reasons against them, particulary from the manners notwithstanding all the art with which you A Report of the Committee of the Highland have endeavoured to throw a vernish * Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the that circumstance; and the preservation of nature and authenticity of the Poems of Ossian. Drawn up, according to the directions of the Com-such long and such connected poems, by mittee, by Henry Mackenzie, Esq. its convener, or oral tradition alone, during a chairman. With a copious Appendix, containing some of the principal documents on which the Report is founded. Edinburgh, 1805.' 8vo. page 843. * So in MS. on course of as remain, and make them rehearse their ancient poems. Let the clergymen then have the translation in their hands, and let them write back to you, and inform you, that they heard such a one (naming him), living in such a place, rehearse the original of such a passage, from such a page to such a page of the English translation, which appeared exact and faithful. If you give to the public a sufficient number of such testimonies you may prevail. But I venture to foretel to you, that nothing less will serve the purpose; nothing less will so much as command the attention of the public. fourteen centuries, is so much out of the ordinary course of human affairs, that it requires the strongest reasons to make us believe it. My present purpose, therefore, is to apply to you, in the name of all the men of letters of this, and, I may say, of all other countries, to establish this capital point, and to give us proofs that these poems are, I do not say, so ancient as the age of Severus, but that they were not forged within these five years by James Macpherson. These proofs must not be arguments, but testimonies: people's ears are fortified against the former; the latter may yet find their way, before the poems are 'Becket tells me, that he is to give us a consigned to total oblivion. Now the testi- new edition of your Dissertation, accommonies may, in my opinion, be of two kinds. panied with some remarks on Temora. Here Macpherson pretends that there is an an-is a favourable opportunity for you to execient manuscript of part of Fingal in the family, I think, of Clanronald. Get that fact ascertained by more than one person of credit; let these persons be acquainted with the Gaelic; let them compare the ori-discovered in the commonwealth of letters; ginal and the translation; and let them testify the fidelity of the latter. 'But the chief point in which it will be necessary for you to exert yourself, will be, to get positive testimony from many different hands that such poems are vulgarly recited in the Highlands, and have there long been the entertainment of the people. This testimony must be as particular as it is positive. It will not be sufficient that a Highland gentleman or clergyman say or write to you that he has heard such poems: nobody questions that there are traditional poems in that part of the country, where the names of Ossian and Fingal, and Oscar and Gaul, are mentioned in every stanza. The only doubt is, whether these poems have any farther resemblance to the poems published by Macpherson. I was told by Bourke *, a very ingenious Irish gentleman, the author of a tract on the sublime and beautiful, that on the first publication of Macpherson's book, all the Irish cried out, 'We know all those poems. We have always heard them from our infancy.' But when he asked more particular questions, he could never learn that any one had ever heard or could repeat the original of any one paragraph of the pretended translation. This generality, then, must be carefully guarded against, as being of no authority. "Your connexions among your brethren of the clergy may be of great use to you. You may easily learn the names of all ministers of that country who understand the language of it. You may write to them, expressing the doubts that have arisen, and desiring them to send for such of the bards *So in MS. cute this purpose. You have a just and laudable zeal for the credit of these poems. They are, if genuine, one of the greatest curiosities in all respects that ever was and the child is, in a manner, become yours by adoption, as Macpherson has totally abandoned all care of it. These motives call upon you to exert yourself; and I think it were suitable to your candour, and most satisfactory also to the reader, to publish all the answers to all the letters you write, even though some of those letters should make somewhat against your own opinion in this affair. We shall always be the more assured, that no arguments are strained beyond their proper force, and no contrary arguments suppressed, where such an entire communication is made to us. Becket joins me heartily in that application; and he owns to me, that the believers in the authenticity of the poems diminish every day among the men of sense and reflection. Nothing less than what I propose can throw the balance on the other side.' Lisle Street, Leicester Fields, 19th Sept. 1763. The second letter contains less matter of importance; but what there is that is rele vant deserves not to be omitted. 'I am very glad,' he writes on the 6th of October, 1763, 'you have undertaken the task which I used the freedom to recommend to you. Nothing less than what you propose will serve the purpose. You need expect no assistance from Macpherson, who flew into a passion when I told him of the letter I had wrote to you. But you must not mind so strange and heteroclite a mortal, than whom I have scarce ever known a man more perverse and unamiable. He will probably depart for Florida with governor Johnstone, and I would advise him to travel "Since writing the above, I have been in company with Mrs. Montague, a lady of great distinction in this place, and a zealous partisan of Ossian. I told her of your intention, and even used the freedom to read your letter to her. She was extremely pleased with your project; and the rather, as the Duc de Nivernois, she said, had talked to her much on that subject last winter; and desired, if possible, to get collected some proofs of the authenticity of these poems, which he proposed to lay before the Academie de Belles Lettres at Paris. You see, then, that you are upon a great stage in this inquiry, and that many people have their eyes upon you. This is a new motive for rendering your proofs as complete as possible. I cannot conceive any objection which a man even of the gravest character could have to your publication of his letters, which will only attest a plain fact known to him. Such scruples, if they occur, you must endeavour to remove, for on this trial of yours will the judgment of the public finally depend.' Without being acquainted with Hume's advice to Dr. Blair, the Committee, composed of chosen persons, and assisted by the best Celtic scholars, adopted, as it will be seen, a very similar manner of acting. It conceived the purpose of its nomination 'to be, to employ the influence of the society, and the extensive communication which it possesses with every part of the Highlands, in collecting what materials or information it was still practicable to collect, regarding the authenticity and nature of the poems ascribed to Ossian, and particulary of that celebrated collection published by Mr. James Macpherson. For the purpose above-mentioned, the Committee, soon after its appointment, circulated the following set of Queries, through such parts of the Highlands and Islands, and among such persons resident there, as seemed most likely to afford the information required. QUERIES. 1. Have you ever heard repeated, or sung, any of the poems ascribed to Ossian, translated and published by Mr. Macpherson? By whom have you heard them so repeated, and at what time or times? Did you ever commit any of them to writing? or can you remember them so well as now to set them down? In either of these cases, be so good as to send the Gaelic original to the Committee. 2. The same answer is requested concerning any other ancient poems of the same kind, and relating to the same traditionary persons or stories with those in Mr. Macpherson's collection. be so 3. Are any of the persons from whom you heard any such poems now alive? or are there, in your part of the country, any persons who remember and can repeat or recite such poems? If there are, good as to examine them as to the manner of their getting or learning such compositions; and set down, as accurately as possible, such as they can now repeat or recite; and transmit such their account, and such compositions as they repeat, to the Committee. 4. If there are, in your neighbourhood, any persons from whom Mr. Macpherson received any poems, inquire particularly what the poems were which he so received, the manner in which he received them, and how he wrote them down; show those persons, if you have an opportunity, his translation of such poems, and desire them to say, if the translation is exact and literal; or, if it differs, in what it differs from the poems, as they repeated them to Mr. Macpherson, and can now recollect them. 5. Be so good to procure every information you conveniently can, with regard to the traditionary belief, in the country in which you live, concerning the history of Fingal and his followers, and that of Ossian and his poems; particularly those stories and poems published by Mr. Macpherson, and the heroes mentioned in them. Transmit any such account, and any proverbial or traditionary expression in the original Gaelic, relating to the subject, to the Committee. 6. In all the above inquiries, or any that may occur to in elucidation of this subject, he is requested by the Committee to make the inquiry, and to take down the answers, with as much impartiality and precision as possible, in the same manner as if it were a legal question, and the proof to be investigated with a legal strictness.See the 'Report.' It is presumed, as undisputed, that a traditionary history of a great hero or chief, called Fion, Fion na Gael, or, as it is modernised, Fingal, exists, and has immemorially existed, in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and that certain poems or ballads containing the exploits of him and his associate heroes were the favourite lovo of the natives of those districts. The general belief of the existence of such heroic personages, and the great poet Ossian, the son of Fingal, by whom their exploits were sung, is as universal in the Highlands as the belief of any ancient fact whatsoever. |