guage as the Gaelic, for all the purposes of composition, is not to be questioned, because he does not speak it accurately or elegantly, much less is it to be quibbled into suspicion by the pleasantry of a double entendre. But we hold it prudent, and it shall be our endeavour in this place, to give no decided opinion on the main subject of dispute. For us the contention shall still remain sub judice.

seem

All this will be readily conceded, and Mr. Macpherson's being at one period an 'indifferent proficient in the Gaelic language' may an argument of some weight against his having himself composed these Ossianic Poems. Of his inaccuracy in the Gaelic, a ludicrous instance is related in the declaration of Mr. Ewan Macpherson, at Knock, in Sleat, Sep. 11, 1800. He declares, that he, Colonel Macleod, of Talisker, and the late Mr. Maclean, of Coll, embarked with Mr. Macpherson for Uist on the same pursuit: that they landed at Lochmaddy, and proceeded across the Muir to Benbecula, the seat of the younger Clanronald: that on their way thither, they fell in with a man whom they afterwards ascertained to have been Mac Codrum, the poet: that Mr. Macpherson asked him the question, Abheil dad agad air an Fheinn? by which he meant to inquire, whether or not he knew any of the poems of Ossian relative to the Fingalians; but that the term in which the question was asked strictly imported whether or not the Fingalians owed him any thing; and that Mac Codrum being a man of humour, took advantage of the incorrectness or inelegance of the Gaelic in which the question was put, and answered, that really if they had owed him any thing, the bonds and obligations were lost, and he believed any attempt to recover them at that time of day would be unavailing. Which sally of Mac Codrum's wit seemed to have hurt Mr. Macpherson, who cut short the conversation, and proceeded on towards Benbecula. And the declarant being asked whether or not the late Mr. James Macpherson was capable of composing such poems as those of Ossian, declares most explicitly and positively that he is certain Mr. Macpherson was as unequal to such compositions as the declarant himself, who could no more make them than take wings and fly.' P. 96.

*

We would here observe, that the suffi

Τυφλος γ' Όμηρος. Lascaris Const. ** Report, p. 15.

To the Queries circulated through such parts of the Highlands as the Committee imagined most likely to afford information in reply to them, they received many answers, most of which were conceived in nearly similar terms; that the persons themselves had never doubted of the existence of such poems as Mr. Macpherson had translated; that they had heard many of them repeated in their youth: that listening to them was the favourite amusement of Highlanders in the hours of leisure and idleness; but that since the rebellion in 1745, the manners of the people had undergone a change so unfavourable to the recitation of these poems, that it was now an amusement scarcely known, and that very few persons remained alive who were able to recite them. That many of the poems which they had formerly heard were similar in subject and story, as well as in the names of the heroes mentioned in them, to those translated by Mr. Macpherson: that his translation seemed, to such as had read it, a very able one; but that it did not by any means come up to the force or energy of the original to such as had read it; for his book was by no means universally possessed, or read among the Highlanders, even accustomed to reading, who conceived that his translation could add but little to their amusement, and not at all to their conviction, in a matter which they had never doubted. A few of the Committee's correspondents sent them such ancient poems as they possessed in writing, from having formerly taken them down from the oral recitation of the old Highlanders who were in use to recite them, or as they now took them down from some person, whom a very advanced period of life, or a particular connexion with some reciter of the old school, enabled still to retain them in his memory **; but those, the Com

* We doubt not' that Mr. Professor Porson could, if he pleased, forge a short poem in Greek, and ascribing it, for instance, to Theocritus, and probability; and yet were it possible for him maintain its authenticity with considerable force to speak to the simplest shepherd of ancient Greece, he would quickly afford as good reason as Mr. M. to be suspected of being an 'indifferent proficient' in the language.

**The Rev. Mr. Smith, who has published translations of many Gaelic poems, accompanied

||

not find, and to add what he conceived to be dignity and delicacy to the original composition, by striking out passages, by softening incidents, by refining the language, in short, by changing what he considered as too simple or too rude for a modern ear, and elevating what, in his opinion, was below the standard of good poetry. To what degree, however, he exercised these liberties, it is impossible for the Committee to determine. The advantages he possessed, which the Committee began its inquiries too late to enjoy, of collecting from the oral recitation of a number of persons, now no more, a very great number of the same poems on the same subjects, and then collating those different copies, or editions, if they may be so called, rejecting what was spurious or corrupted in one copy, and adopting from another something more genuine and excellent in its place, afforded him an opportunity of putting together what might fairly enough be called an original whole, of much more beauty, and with much fewer blemishes, than the Committee believe it now possible for any person, or combination of persons, to obtain.' P. 152-3. Some Scotch critics, who should not be ignorant of the strong-holds and fastnesses of the advocates for the authenticity of these Poems, appear so convinced of their insufficiency, that they pronounce the question put to rest for ever. But we greatly distrust that any literary question, possessing a single inch of debatable ground to stand upon, will be suffered to enjoy much rest in an age like the present. There are as many minds as men, and of wranglers there is no end. Behold another and another yet,' and in our imagination, he—

In his Critical and Historical Dissertation on the Antiquity of Ossian's Poems.

from which the similes and images are indisputably derived * And these he pretends to find in Holy Writ, and in the classical poets, both of ancient and modern times. Mr. Laing, however, is one of those detectors of plagiarisms and discoverers of coincidences, whose exquisite penetration and acuteness can find any thing any where. Dr. Johnson, who was shut against conviction with respect to Ossian, even when he affected to seek the truth in the heart of the Hebrides, may yet be made useful to the Ossianites in canvassing the merits of this redoubted stickler on the side of opposition. 'Among the innumerable practices,' says the Rambler **, by which interest or envy have taught those who live upon literary fame to disturb each other at their airy banquets, one of the most common is the charge of plagiarism. When the excellence of a new composition can no longer be contested, and malice is compelled to give way to the unanimity of applause, there is yet this one expedient to be tried, by which the author may be degraded, though his work be reverenced; and the excellence which we cannot obscure, may be set at such a distance as not to overpower our fainter lustre. This accusation is dangerous, because, even when it is false, it may be sometimes urged with probability.'

How far this just sentence applies to Mr. Laing, it does not become us, nor is it our business, now to declare: but we must say, that nothing can be more disingenuous or groundless than his frequent charges of plagiarism of the following description: because, in the War of Caros, we meet with these words: "It is like the field, when darkness covers the hills around, and the shadow grows slowly on the plain of the sun, we are to believe, according to Mr. Laing, that the idea was stolen from Virgil's

Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae. For see, yon sunny hills the shade extend.

Dryden.

As well might we credit that no one ever beheld a natural phenomenon except the Mantuan bard ***. The book of nature is open to all, and in her pages there are no new readings. Many subjects,' it is well said by Johnson, 'fall under the consideration of an author, which being limited by nature, can admit only of slight and accidental diversities. All definitions of the same

.* Pref. p. v.

** No. 143.

***This is not so good, because not so amusing in its absurdity, as an attempt formerly made to prove the Eneid Erse, from Arma virumque cano,' and 'Airm's am fear canam,' having the same meaning, and nearly the same sound.

thing must be nearly the same; and descriptions, which are definitions of a more lax and fanciful kind, must always have, in some degree, that resemblance to each other which they all have to their object.'

It is true, however, if we were fully able to admit that Macpherson could not have obtained these ideas where he professes to have found them, Mr. Laing has produced many instances of such remarkable coincidence as would make it probable that Macpherson frequently translates, not the Gaelic, but the poetical lore of antiquity. Still this is a battery that can only be brought to play on particular points; and then with great uncertainty. The mode of attack used by Mr. Knight, could it have been carried on to any extent, would have proved much more effectual. We shall give the instance alluded to. In his Analytical Enquiry into the Principles of Taste, 1805,'|| be makes these remarks:

"The untutored, but uncorrupted feelings of all unpolished nations, have regulated their fictions upon the same principles, even when most rudely exhibited. In relating the actions of their gods and deceased heroes, they are licentiously extravagant; for there falsehood could amuse, because it could not be detected: but in describing the common appearances of nature, and all those objects and effects which are exposed to habitual observation, their bards are scrupulously exact; so that an extravagant byperbole, in a matter of this kind, is sufficient to mark as counterfeit any composition attributed to them. In the early stages of society, men are as acute and accurate in practical observation as they are limited and deficient in speculative science; and in proportion as they are ready to give up their imaginations to delusion, they are jealously tenacious of the evidence of their senses. James Macpherson, in the person of his blind bard, could say, with applause, in the eighteenth century, Thus have I seen in Cona; but Cona I behold no more; thus have I seen two dark hills removed from their place by the strength of the mountain stream. They turn from side to side, and their tall oaks meet one another on high. Then they fall together with all their rocks and trees.'

But had a blind bard, or any other bard, presumed to utter such a rhapsody of bombast in the hall of shells, amid the savage warriors to whom Ossian is supposed to have sung, he would have needed all the influence of royal birth, attributed to that fabulous personage, to restain the audience from throwing their shells at his head, and hooting him out of their company as an impudent liar. They must have been sufficiently acquainted with the rivulets of Cona

or Glen-Coe to know that he had seen nothing of the kind; and have known enough of mountain torrents in general to know that no such effects are ever produced by them; and would, therefore, have indignantly rejected such a barefaced attempt to impose on their credulity.'

The best defence that can be set up in this case will, perhaps, be to repeat, 'It is he himself that now speaks, and not Ossian.'

Mr. Laing had scarcely thrown down the gauntlet, when Mr. Archibald M‘Donald * appeared

Ready, aye ready **, for the field.'

The opinion of the colour of his opposition, whether it be that of truth or error, will depend on the eye that contemplates it. Those who delight to feast with Mr. Laing on the limbs of a mangled poet, will think the latter unanswered; while those *** who continue to indulge the animating thought, that Fingal lived, and that Ossian sung,' will entertain a different sentiment. After successfully combating several old positions ***, Mr. M'Donald terminates his discussion of the point at issue with these words:

6

'He (Mr. Laing) declares, if a single poem of Ossian in MS. of an older date than the present century (1700), be procured and lodged in a public library, I (Laing) shall return among the first to our national creed.'

"This is reducing the point at issue to a narrow compass. Had the proposal been made at the outset, it would have saved both him and me a great deal of trouble: not that in regard to ancient Gaelic manuscripts I could give any more satisfactory account than has been done in the course of this discourse. There the reader will see, that though some of the poems are confessedly procured from oral tradition, yet several gentlemen of veracity attest to have seen, among Macpherson's papers, several

* Some of Ossian's lesser poems, rendered into verse, with a preliminary discourse, in answer to Mr. Laing's Critical and Historical Dissertation Liverpool, 1805.' on the Antiquity of Ossian's Poems. 8vo. p. 284.

** Thirlestane's motto. See Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel.

the amiable and learned Dr. Gregory, is on the *** A Professor in the University of Edinburgh, side of the believers in Ossian. His judgment is a tower of strength. See the Preface, p. vi. to xii. and p. 146, of his Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World.

**** Such as the silence of Ossian in respect to

religion; his omission of wolves and bears, &c. See also, in the Literary Journal, August, 1804, a powerful encounter of many of Mr. L.'s other arguments in his Dissertation against the authenticity of these poems. His ignorance of the Gaelic, and the consequent futility of his etymological remarks, are there ably exposed.