the north and west districts, who spoke the same language, and had constant intercourse with the Irish, could remain ignorant of letters. The supposition is too absurd to require a serious refutation.

2. In addition to the general observations, made under the head of Oral Tradition, Ancient Song and Music, and what is said in the preceding section, we shall now briefly take a cursory view of the evidence recently laid before the public to prove, that the poems ascribed to Ossian existed in various fragments or manuscripts, and have been recited for ages, and sung to music, in the Highlands of Scotland.

In a letter from Sir John Macpherson, Bart.* to Doctor Blair, dated the 4th February, 1760, he mentions having selected from his collection of Gaelic poems, and transmitted to the Doctor, in order to satisfy Mr. Percy's curiosity, three specimens of the original poems ascribed to Ossian; namely 1. Ossian's Courtship of Everallin; 2. his Address to the Evening Star, the original of which, Sir John says, suffered in the hands of Mr. Macpherson, though he has shewn himself inferior to no translator; 3. Ullin's War-Song. Sir John declares upon his honour, that he never received any of these originals from Mr. Macpherson, nor took the least assistance from his translation. And he concludes with observing, "if you forward these specimens to Mr. Percy, he certainly will make the requisite allowance for the

A Member of the Committee appointed to superintend this publication.

difference of copies. Others, to whom he will perhaps shew them, and who are less accquainted with the manner in which our ancient poetry was preserved, may not be equally candid. But after you have convinced men of the nicest taste in Europe, it would be a mistake in any one to endeavour to convince those, who have not the power of believing, or the good taste to discern the genuineness and antiquity of any work from the turn of its composition."

Sir James Macdonald, in his letter to Dr. Blair, dated Isle of Sky, 10th October, 1763,* says, "these islands never were possessed of any curious manuscripts, as far as I can learn, except a few which Clanronald had, and which are all in Macpherson's possession. The few bards that are left among us, repeat only detached pieces of these poems. I have often heard and understood them; particularly from one man called John Maccodrum, who lives upon my estate of North Uuist. I have heard him repeat for hours together poems, which seemed to me to be the same with Macpherson's translation."

Lachlan Macpherson of Strathmashie, who, in the year 1760, accompanied Mr. Macpherson during some part of his journey, while in search of the poems of Ossian through the Highlands, declares in his letter to Dr. Blair, dated the 23d October, 1763,† "I assisted him in collecting them, and took down from oral tradition, and transcribed from old manuscripts by far the greatest part of those pieces he has

*

Appendix to Report of the Highland Society, p. 3.

+ See Letter in Appendix to Report of the Highland Society, p. §.

published. Since the publication, I have carefully compared the translation with the copies of the originals in my hands, and find it amazingly literal, even in such a degree as to preserve in some measure the cadence of the Gaelic versification. I need not aver, Sir, that these poems are taken in this country, to be of the utmost antiquity. This is notorious to almost all those who speak the Gaelic language in Scotland. In the Highlands the scene of every action is pointed out to this day, and the historical poems of Ossian have been for ages the winter evening amusements of the clans. Some of the hereditary bards, retained by the chiefs, committed very early to writing, some of the works of Ossian. One manuscript in particular was written as far back as the year 1410, which I saw in Mr. Macpherson's possession.”

The late Doctor John Macpherson, minister of Sleat, in his letter to Dr. Blair, dated 27th November, 1763,* bears testimony to the following facts, that he had perused a Gaelic MS. containing all the poems translated by Mr. Macpherson, or a considerable part of them; and he solemnly affirms, that he had seen a Gaelic manuscript in the hands of an old bard, who was in the habits of travelling in the Highlands and Isles, about the year 1733, out of which he read in his hearing, and before thousands alive at the date of his letter, the exploits of Cuthullin, Fingal, Oscar, Ossian, Gaul, Dermid, and the other heroes celebrated in Mr. Macpherson's book. That this bard was descended of a race of ancestors, who had served the * See Appendix to Report of Highland Society, p. 9.

family of Clanronald for about three hundred years, in quality of bards and genealogists, and whose predecessors had been employed in the same office by the Lords of the Isles long before the family of Clanronald existed. That the name of the tribe which produced these hereditary poets and senachies, was Macmurrich. That the poems contained in the manuscripts belonging to the Macmurrichs, were identically the same with those published by Mr. Macpherson, or nearly so, seemed to be ahundantly probable. That he had caused to be rehearsed from memory in his hearing, by persons competent to the task, several fragments or detached pieces of Ossian's poems, and afterwards compared those pieces with Macpherson's translation. The pieces he has particularly enumerated, and has also given the names of the rehearsers.

Doctor Macpherson, in giving his opinion impartially, how far the translations given by the publisher of Ossian's works agree with the original, in as far as he had occasion to see or hear the latter, makes the following judicious remarks, "Those who are ready to believe, that Mr. Macpherson has given his translation of Ossian's works from an ancient manuscript, cannot pretend to determine that his version is too free, too incorrect, or faulty in any respect, until they are able to compare it with the original contained in that manuscript. But those who suppose, or may think, that Mr. Macpherson was at the pains to consult different rehearsers, and to compare their various editions, must suppose, and think at the same time, that he had an undoubted right, like

every editor who collates several different manuscripts, to depart from the words of this or that edition, when he saw good reason for so doing, to prefer the diction, sentiments, versification, and order of one to those of another; nay, to throw a conjectural emendation now and then into his version, when he found the original text corrupted by all the rehearsers. This being admitted," says Doctor Macpherson, "I shall make no difficulty of thinking that the editor of Ossian's works has translated those parts of the original which were repeated in my hearing, I will not say with a servile exactness, but upon the whole inimitably well. I add further, that he has turned some of the detached pieces so frequently repeated in this part of the country, from the Gaelic into English, as literally as he ought to have done. Meantime I can hardly hinder myself from believing, that the original Gaelic stanzas of some poems, rendered into English by him, are, in not a few instances, rather better than those corresponding with them in the translation, however masterly that undoubtedly is."

Doctor Macpherson, in accounting for the manner in which Ossian's compositions were preserved from age to age, and transmitted to our day without any material corruptions, makes the following classical and judicious observations.

"Ossian was the Homer of the ancient Highlanders, and at the same time one of their most illustrious heroes. A people who held bards in the highest esteem, and paid withal the profoundest respect to the memory of those who had distinguished