274 



one would be inclined to think that scarcely any thing more could be 

 said on the antiquity and authenticity of those poems. Yet, so 

 little satisfied was the Highland Society of London with the suffi- 

 ciency of that lengthy work to answer the intended design, that it 

 found it necessary to publish a new dissertation on that subject, com- 

 posed by Sir John Sinclair, prefixed to the first volume of the so 

 called " Poems of Ossian, in the original Gaelic," and a " Transla- 

 tion of the Abbe Cesarotti's Historical and Critical Dissertation;" 

 and " Supplemental Observations on the Authenticity of Ossian 's 

 Poems, by John M'Arthur, LL.D.," making an aggregate of 616 

 pages royal octavo. 



To enter into a particular examination of all that is said upon this 

 subject, as we have done with the Report of the Highland Society, 

 would be tedious and unnecessary. Sir John Sinclair restates what 

 was before said of the Highland Society of Scotland ; Doctor M'Ar- 

 thur also leans upon the Report of that Society as a chief support, 

 and the Abbe Cessarotti says nearly as little for the authenticity or 

 antiquity of the poems, as Doctor Blair did before him. We shall, 

 therefore, pass over these different tracts in a cursory manner, taking 

 particular notice of those parts only which have not been brought 

 forward and examined in the Report of the Society. 

 11 Sir John Sinclair, in his '< Introduction" says, " The Gaelic ori- 

 ginal * * * * furnishes complete internal evidence of its own origi- 

 nality." The same is asserted in the Report of the Highland Society 

 of Scotland, p. 137, and on this Sir John relies as an incontroverti- 

 ble proof of the authenticity of the poems. We acknowledge that 

 the language and the construction of the verse are the best criterions 

 for judging of the genuineness and antiquity of the poems, but with- 

 out at present entering into a critical examination of either, we deny 

 that the language of the poems, as published, "furnishes complete 



