was well received. Returning to the mainland, he made his way to Badenoch, from which, on October 27, he writes:-"I have already traversed most of the isles and gathered all worth notice in that quarter." In the same letter he speaks of visiting Mull and the coast of Argyllshire to enlarge his collection. He seems to have spent the early part of the winter in Badenoch, arranging his papers, and assisted in this task by one of his kinsmen, Lachlan Macpherson of Strathmashie, the author of several Gaelic poems. On January 16, 1761, Macpherson was back in Edinburgh, bringing his trophies with him. "I have been lucky enough," he wrote, "to lay my hands on a pretty complete poem, and truly epic, concerning Fingal," 2—the same poem of whose plot he had given a sketch before he left Edinburgh six months before.

On his return he proceeded with his translation. Dr. Blair often visited him, and Macpherson would read or recite the result of the day's labour. The fame of the forthcoming epic now spread abroad, and public curiosity was keenly stimulated. A wider field might be sought, and Macpherson departed for London, bearing a letter of introduction from Hume to his countryman, the publisher Strahan. Hume mentioned the Fragments, and added that Macpherson had just translated a larger work, a narrative poem of great 1 Highland Society's Report, App., p. 153. 2 Ibid., p. 155.

In

antiquity, which would probably have been buried in oblivion, if he had not retrieved it.1 Another and wealthier patron gave encouragement. Fingal Macpherson speaks of "the generosity of a certain noble person," whom he does not name, "as his exalted station, as well as merit, has raised him above the panegyric of one so little known." Temora, in a flowing dedication, reveals him as the Earl of Bute, whom the accession of the young King had just raised to power. Thus, in the beginning of the new reign, the poems of Ossian were launched upon the public under the auspices of the Prime Minister.

So far fortune had done well by Macpherson. Buried a few years before in an obscure Highland village, he was now in the eye of the great world, aided by the King's favourite, and regarded with approbation by poets and philosophers. This prosperity was not to continue unbroken. The culmination of his succèss in the publication of his two epics, whilst it brought him money and fame, awakened suspicions that had hitherto lain asleep and did much to overthrow his credit. In the outburst of accusation and argument that followed, some of his supporters, like Hume, saw the delusion into which they had been led, and forsook him altogether. Others, like Blair and Home, maintained his cause to the end with a tenacity which nothing could move. The acute 1 Hume's Letters to Strahan, ed. Birkbeck Hill, p. 36.

and discerning Gray was tossed in opinion from side to side, loth to give up the poems, unconvinced by the evidence in their favour, inclining at last, it would seem, to the side of acceptance. His case is the stranger because Gray, had he looked into Ossian with sufficient detachment, might have found there the influence of his own muse. It cannot be said that had the Bard not been published it appeared in 1757-there would have been no Ossian; but Ossian would at least have been somewhat different.

"On a rock, whose haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, Robed in the sable garb of woe,

With haggard eyes the poet stood;
(Loose his beard, and hoary hair

Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air)
And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire,
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.

'Hark, how each giant oak, and desert cave, Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath !'"

The bard of Conway and the bard of Cona are exactly the same person. In the days when steelengravings were prefixed to works of imagination, a single long-bearded rhapsodist, smiting a harp among desert rocks, might have done indifferently for either. Even the background, the oaks and caves, the torrent whose roar mingles with the voice of the minstrel, is the same. But Gray did not observe this quaint affiliation; and it is possible that it was not fully perceived by the author of Ossian himself.

CHAPTER V

NEW TALES FOR OLD ONES

WHEN Macpherson met Home at Moffat he had in his possession at least two of the genuine Ossianic ballads. During his journey in the Highlands he collected more; traces of them are scattered all through his works; in one place the outline of a tale, in another a short descriptive touch, in another a fragment of a speech. But not one ballad is given entirely and literally; and his knowledge of some is attested only by tiny scraps embedded in long pages of his own composition. He pulled the ballads to shreds; took from them what suggestions he pleased, and inserted them where he thought fit; and reconstructed the Fenian legend from top to bottom.

It was not easy to pour the bright wine of Celtic fantasy into the bottles of Blair. The young scholar's imagination was filled with Homer and Milton Blair's young disciple must needs discuss Aristotle, unities, the rules of the epic. Macpherson's academic knowledge gave him another hint. His characters are not Irish, they are not Highlanders of modern Scotland: they are the Caledonians that the Romans knew, and of whom

he had read in the Agricola of Tacitus, He hit upon the device of introducing that part of Roman history in which their descendants might take some pride, the invasion of North Britain by Severus and his failure to subdue the mountaineers. Nothing could be more foreign to the scope of the Fenian ballads; but Macpherson found in them at least a name that might be used. In Celtic legend the "King of the World," against whom Finn MacCumhail fought, is spoken of. A purely romantic personage, he came to Ireland by sea with the warriors of France, Greece and India, and was overthrown at the battle of Ventry Harbour. In the Dean of Lismore's Book he is identified with the King of Lochlin, or Norway. Macpherson now seized upon the "King of the World" and made him one with the Roman Emperor. Fingal fights the Romans under Caracalla, son of Severus, who is here called Caracul. Victory is with the men of Morven Caracul flees; and his enemies exult,-" Confusion pursue thee over thy plains! Ruin overtake thee, thou King of the World." 1 Henceforth the Romans are daunted in presence of the valiant Caledonian. They spread the wings of their pride behind their gathered heap, looking over the stones with fear. Macpherson explains that the "wings of pride are those of the Roman eagle; and that the

1 "Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!

Confusion on thy banners wait."-Gray's Bard.

"