114 . 



Gaelic from the English Ossian, and interlarded with fragments of 

 the Irish Fenian Tales, from which Macpherson first took the idea of 

 constructing his pastoral epics. The Highland Society, in the 137th 

 page of their report, justly observed that the publication of the entire 

 original 



" Will afTord an opportunity to those who question its authenticity, to examine nar- 

 rowly the intrinsic evidence arising from the nature and construction of the language. Thi^ 

 will be of the first importance in the dispute. The committee does not recollect any instance 

 of a fabrication in a foreign language, or in a language supposed to be that of an ancient 

 period, where, upon an accurate examination, internal proofs of the forgery have not been 

 discovered in the very language alone in which the forgery was attempted to be conveyed." 



It was magnanimous in the committee to write thus. The origi- 

 nal has been weighed in their own balance, and found wanting. The 

 very first lines which Macpherson published, as a specimen of the 

 ancient Ossian, betrayed the cheat, and exposed his ignorance of the 

 ancient Gaelic language and versification ; and we feel strongly con- 

 vinced that every succeeding investigation will tend only still farther 

 to expose his impositions. 



SECTION VI. 



On theprobaMe Era and Origin of the Poems attributed to Ossian. 



That Oisin, the son of Fin Mac-Cumhal, had acquired great 

 reputation as a poet among his countrymen, may be justly concluded 

 from the long and constant traditions of posterity. Fin was himself 

 a poet, and, like the great Achilles, delighted in stringing the harp 

 to the glorious deeds of heroes and of kings. But that any of the 

 poems actually composed or sung either by him or Oisin, have been 



