174 



of internal evidence is so much relied on, it calls for our particular 

 attention, and it shall be candidly examined when we come to treat 

 of the poems in the original Gaelic. 



Before entering upon an examination of the poems, it will be ne- 

 cessary to notice the falsehoods, misstatements, and contradictions, 

 contained in the Dissertations of Mr. Macpherson prefixed to those 

 poems. The first thing in the Dissertation that claims our attention 

 is, where he says, page 11, n. ed. — " Those who write in the Gaehc 

 language seldom mention religion in their profane poetry." He men- 

 tions this to account for the silence of his Ossian on the subject of 

 religion; but the assertion is totally devoid of truth, as must be well 

 known to all readers of Gaelic. Mr. Macpherson soon contradicts 

 himself. He tells us, in the very next page, that " it was with one 

 of the Culdees that Ossian, in his extreme old age, is said to have 

 disputed concerning the Christian religion. This dispute, they say, 



is extant, and is couched in verse, The dispute bears the 



genuine marks of antiquity. The obsolete phrases and expressions 

 peculiar to the times prove it to be no forgery." Here we are told 

 that Ossian's dispute on the subject of religion is extant in verse. He 

 at first gives us only a they say, but he soon forgets " they say," and 

 positively asserts that the dispute is extant, and that it bears the 

 genuine marks of antiquity, " which prove it to be no forgery." Mr. 

 Macpherson well knew that such a poem was in existence ; he had no 

 occasion, therefore, for a " they say," he could have produced the 

 poem ; but he had his own reasons for not doing so. It would have 

 overthrown his system, and proved that the heroes of Ossian were 

 Irishmen. It would also prove that it could not be written in the 

 days of Ossian ; for though its " phrases and expressions " may appear 

 obsolete to a modern Highlander, a Gaelic scholar, even moderately 

 skilled in ancient Gaelic manuscripts, can at one glance discover 



