^3: 



Scotch nation of all the comfort which the letter of Doctor Ferguson 

 affords. We shall, therefore, leave it in full possession of all such 

 poems as the daubing of " Scot's snuff" may prove to be not of; 

 recent vi^riting. -„. ^|; 



The Doctor, however, not satisfied with his testimony as to the 

 poems, adds an observation or two on the Gaelic language, and he 

 tells us, " It was a language spoken in, the cottage, but not in the 

 parlour * * * * There were no books in it, but the manuals of 

 religion, and these in so aukward and clumsy a spelling, that few. 

 could read them." If any beside a Scotchman were to assert this, 

 it would be put down to the account of prejudice ; but being asserted 

 by a learned Caledonian, we must believe it true. Yet, in this coun- 

 try, where there were no books "but the manuals of religion," the 

 Highland Societies would persuade us the long poems of Fingal, Temo- \ 

 ra, &c., were preserved for the long space of fifteen hundred years. 



The Committee was not more fortunate in referring to the letter 

 of Doctor Carlysle, than to those of the two last-mentioned gentle-^ 

 men. ., Indeed it was rather less so. Mr. Carlyle says not one word 

 for the authenticity of Ossian's poems. He expresses a belief that 

 Mr. Macpherson was not, and could not, be the fabricator of the 

 poems ; but he admits something like it. He says, '* I am ready to 

 admit, that after collecting all the scattered fragments, he tied them 

 together in form of heroic poenis. This gentleman was intimately^ 

 acquainted with Mr. Macpherson, and in the years 1769 and 1770, 

 for four months in each year, saw him daily, yet he does not venture 

 to say that in all that time, or at any other time, he ever saw one 

 line of the Gaelic originals, though the conversation often turned oq 

 theppems. j,,,..^ 



- Jj:Mr. Home's testimony is of less value than even Doctor Carlyle's. 

 He was totally igi^or^nt of the Gaelic language, yet having heard 



VOL. XV r. K K 



