283 



modern Scotch ingenuity, and attempted to be imposed upon the 

 world as the genuine production of an ancient Scottish bard. To 

 some of those poems we shall hereafter particularly refer, when we 

 come to analyse the language of the Society's originals. 



To give a greater colour to the opinion that Mr. Macpherson was 

 the translator and not the fabricator of those rhapsodies, which he has 

 published under the name of Ossian's poems. Sir John (Dissertation, 

 p. 96,) affects to condemn that translation, and tells us that " There is 

 another mode, however, by which the publication of the Gaelic will 

 furnish the most satisfactory evidence of its own originality, namely, 

 by comparing it, or a new translation of it, with Macpherson's trans- 

 lation." The purposes for which this new translation is proposed, 

 are to ascertain whether Macpherson did not misunderstand his ori- 

 ginal .'* whether he did not add many words and expressions not 

 found in the original .'* whether he did not omit many beautiful words 

 and passages found in the original .'' whether he did not pass over 

 many words or phrases which he found it difficult to translate ? and 

 lastly, whether he djd sufficient justice to the nervous simplicity, 

 &c., of the Celtic bard ? To shew Macpherson's incompetence to 

 translate Gaelic poetry, and that he did not do justice to the Celtic 

 bard, a new translation of the first book of Fingal, by the Rev. Mr. 

 Ross, is printed on opposite pages with Macpherson's translation, 

 followed by observation, in which, of course' the inferiority of Mac- 

 pherson's translation is made to appe.ar. 



It is no part of the design of this Essay to criticise either the 

 translation or the original of Ossian's poems, much less to defend 

 Mr. Macpherson from the attacks of his friends. If it were, the 

 new translation, the notes of the translator, and the observations 

 which follow, would afford an ample field for discussion. We shall 



VOL. xvr. p p 



