attempt to vindicate Macpherson was in active progress. The Gaelic version of Ossian, which had been kept so long in obscurity, was about to be published; and its appearance would afford a crucial test which both sides might welcome. The Highland Society of London, led by Sir John Sinclair, an energetic baronet of the North, had obtained the papers and controlled the enterprise. In 1807 the Gaelic Ossian appeared in three volumes, whose creamy paper, exquisite type and stout leather binding seemed worthy of such a monument. A translation into Latin confronted the Gaelic on each page.

What was this mysterious original, and what was its value? To answer these questions we must return for a brief period to the time when James Macpherson was still active in sublunary affairs.

CHAPTER VIII

THE GAELIC TEXT

WHEN Macpherson declared that he had translated the Gaelic Ossian as he found it, and had placed the poems before the reader as they came into his hands, the arrangement of words in the original language having been imitated, and the peculiarities of the Gaelic style preserved, he evidently claimed to have in his possession a Gaelic text as complete and full as the English, parallel to it poem by poem and line by line. As we have seen, he wrote in 1762 that there was a design on foot to publish this original as soon as he should have leisure to transcribe it for the press, and that, if this publication should not take place, copies would then be deposited in one of the public libraries, "to prevent so ancient a monument of genius from being lost." To descant on the completeness of his Gaelic and the literal exactness of his translation was easy, and at first threw a certain colour of reality about his works. But when opposition had begun, these assurances placed him in some embarrassment. For it is now known that he had no such

Gaelic text, and did not confute his critics by its production because he could not.

From this situation there was but one way of escape, the construction of a new body of Gaelic poetry by translating from the printed English, and its ultimate exhibition as the missing Celtic original. At what time Macpherson set about this work, and what collaborators lent him assistance, it is impossible to tell with precision. The undertaking had been begun as early as 1763, when a Gaelic version of the Seventh Book of Temora was published, "for the satisfaction of those who doubt the authenticity of Ossian's poems." During the years that followed, other portions fitfully appeared. Shaw obtained a number of lines which had been given to one of the Lords of Session, and published them in his first book. Other extracts found their way about in manuscript. But whatever progress Macpherson may have made, the Gaelic Ossian still remained incomplete. Probably he himself had become weary of it. He was now living in London where opportunities for Gaelic study were scarce, and his mind was occupied with political affairs and money-making. The enterprise seems to have been abandoned for a time, and the parts of the Gaelic version which he had done lay in an old box in a lumber room. And while Macpherson had become absorbed in other business, public interest in the dispute had declined; there seemed a likelihood that it would lapse altogether; and Macpherson's laborious and irksome task might be permitted to lapse too.

Things had fallen into this not unsatisfactory state, when he was suddenly recalled to his labours in a manner that was disconcerting enough.

A Highland gentleman in India, Sir John Macgregor Murray, had been prompted by Johnson's attack on the authenticity of Ossian to do something for its defence, and therefore drew up a manifesto in which he proposed a subscription to defray the cost of issuing the Gaelic text. The paper might almost have been written by the fiery nephew of Monkbarns. Attempts, said Sir John Murray, had been made to rob ancient Caledonia of the honour which Ossian's poems, those sublime productions of human imagination, reflected upon her, by proving that the noble and heroic sentiments they contained were incompatible with the contemporary circumstances of that country; that the nation was then too barbarous to inspire, and its language too imperfect to express them. These misrepresentations, which had naturally excited a mixture of sorrow and indignation in those who found the source of their noblest ideas thus vilified, could best be answered by enabling Mr. Macpherson to publish the works of Ossian in the sublime original and the ancient character. None but Highlanders were to take part in the movement.1

The project was taken up with enthusiasm. A sum of £1000 was collected, which Sir John 1 Sir John Sinclair's Dissertation, 1807, p. ccxvii.

Murray transmitted to John Mackenzie, Secretary to the Highland Society of London, who, as it happened, was one of Macpherson's friends. He sent with it a letter in which a hope was expressed that Mr. Macpherson would manifest a cheerful promptitude in yielding to the calls of his country. The members of the Highland Society then proceeded actively in the matter. After thanking the East Indian subscribers for their exertions, they appointed a committee to wait upon Macpherson, to express their own ardent wishes for the publication, and to ask when it might be looked for.

To Macpherson himself, this sudden and earnest appeal was not altogether welcome. On being asked to receive the deputation, he sent a reply which it is best to quote in full.

"NORFOLK STREET, July 4th, 1784.

"MY DEAR SIR,-I received the favour of your letter, dated yesterday; and I am sorry the gentlemen should think of giving themselves the trouble of waiting upon me, as a ceremony of that kind is altogether superfluous and unnecessary. I shall adhere to the promise I made several years ago to a deputation of the same kind; that is, to employ my first leisure time, and a considerable portion of time it must be to do it accurately, in arranging and printing the originals of the Poems of Ossian, as they have come to my hands. Funds having been established for the expense, there can be no excuse but want of leisure for not commencing the work in a very few months.