232 



never was seen in Gaelic by Hill, Gillies, Stewart, or any other pub- 

 lisher or collector of Gaelic poems, no, not even by the Highland 

 Society itself, with all its industry, for it regrets its inability to pro- 

 cure a copy. Is it not, therefore, rational to conclude, that an old 

 copy of it never existed in the Gaelic language ? 



We have now candidly examined the letters to which our atten- 

 tion was called by the Committee of the Highland Society, and we 

 submit, that they do not contain any thing to prove that the poems 

 of Ossian are genuine. On the contrary, they lead us to powerful 

 proofs that the chief episodes in the poem of Fingal, are stolen from 

 the poems ascribed to the Irish Ossian, which Macpherson, for rea- 

 sons now evident, affected to despise. 



The Committee next (Report, p. 14,) directs the attention of the 

 Society, and the public of course, to " the opinion of a native High- 

 lander, uninstructed in the literature, and even ignorant of the lan- 

 guage of any other country, of the question which he heard was 

 agitated with regard to the authenticity of Ossian 's poems. It is 

 given in the original Gaelic, as delivered by Hugh Mac Donald, 

 * * * * with a translation as literal as a right understanding of its 

 meaning will allow." We also call the attention of the Society and 

 the public to this curious document, confessing, at the same time, 

 that we are unable to discover in what manner the circumstance of 

 Mr. Mac Donald's being illiterate and ignorant of language can add 

 weight to his opinion. In examining this man's testimony, we shall 

 use the translation, as it is, in general, sufficiently literal, and more 

 extensively understood than the original. 



With respect to the language of the poems, Mr. Mac Donald says, 

 " they are composed in the language of the times to which they refer. 

 They contain many words and phrases now obsolete ; and understood 

 by very few." This is a pretty magisterial beginning for an illite- 



