245 



does not say they are so; on the contrary, he tells us, that at this dis- 

 tance of time, he cannot say whether Mr. Macpherson found the poem 

 Fingal arranged as he gave it to the public. He gives us a few Irish 

 verses, which he says were taken from the manuscripts ; but if they 

 were really taken from the manuscript of Clanranald, that manu- 

 script cannot be of the age assigned to it, and it must be imperfect 

 and corrupt beside. This must be evident, at first view, to any per- 

 son at all acquainted with Gaelic versification. We do not believe 

 that either Mr. Gallic or Mr. Macpherson could understand a Gaelic 

 manuscript of the fourteenth century, if it were before them. Mr. 

 Gallic acknowledges that it was with difficulty he could read the 

 Gaelic characters ; and to a certainty he would find it more difficult 

 to understand than to read a manuscript of the age mentioned. That 

 Mr. Macpherson could not read such we have good authority to 

 state. This authority is Mr. Price, the keeper of the Bodleian 

 Library, in which there are some Irish manuscripts of the thirteenth 

 or fourteenth century, containing poems attributed to Ossian. One 

 of these is in Laud, F. 95, and Rawl. 487. This is a dialogue in 

 which Saint Patrick, Caoilte, and Ossian, are interlocutors. Mr. 

 Price, the Librarian, showed this book, which is entitled in the 

 index, *' The battle of the Giants," to Mr. Macpherson ; and he con- 

 fessed that he did not understand one word of those poems. This, 

 Mr. Price related to the late Rev. Charles O'Conor, author of '* Re' 

 rum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres" The mention of these manu- 

 scripts by Mr. Gallic is therefore no proof that Macpherson 's Ossian 

 is authentic, nor is it any proof that the so-called Gaelic originals of 

 the Society are ancient. There is a great difference between the 

 extract given by Mr. Gallic and the corresponding part in the Book 

 of Fingal, published under the sanction of the Society, Book IV. 

 v. 259-284. ^-'.'.w ,•--■-. .:..^x .... ..u=.. r.. 



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