241 



and most impartial examination of those letters, we have not been 

 able to discover any such proofs. Such as they are we shall quote 

 them fairly, and add a few general observations. 



The letter of Doctor Blair is mostly occupied by an account of 

 his first acquaintance with Macpherson ; of the first publication of 

 the " Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of 

 Scotland ;" of his own Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, and his 

 Appendix to that treatise, in which, he says, is to be found " strong 

 and irrefragable evidence in favour of the authenticity of the poems.'* 

 Some of this evidence we have above examined, (p. 213, &c,,) and 

 have shewn that it is by no means such evidence as the learned Doctor 

 describes it. On the contrary, it furnishes proofs that, there were no 

 ancient manuscripts of the poems in the islands ; that there were only 

 fragments or detached pieces of the poems recited by the people of 

 those islands; that the stories were Irish ; and that Doctor Blair's 

 correspondents contradicted themselves and each other. 



The Doctor confesses his ignorance of the Gaelic language, but 

 he says that Professor Ferguson, and some other gentlemen, had exa- 

 mined Macpherson's papers, and saw some which appeared to be old 

 manuscripts. — Appeared to he old manuscripts ! If those gentlemen 

 knew the language, they could soon discover the difference between 

 appearance and reality ; and if they had really seen such old manu- 

 scripts, they would tell us so positively. The Doctor adds, that 

 these gentlemen, " in comparing his " (Macpherson's) " version with 

 the original, they found it exact and faithful, in any parts which they 

 read." This latter part is contradicted by Sir John Sinclair in his 

 ''' Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian," prefixed 

 to "The Poems in the original Gaelic," published by the Highland 

 Society of London, where, to shew that Macpherson's translation is 

 not " exact and faithful," his translation of the first Book of Fingal is 



