76 



Graham follows Blair, and says : 



" If it be ascertained that these poems were composed by a contemporary, imbued as Mr. 

 Macpherson certainly was, in a very respectable measure, with the literature of Greece and 

 Rome, as well as of modern times, we are presented with a phenomenon still more inexpli- 

 cable. That such a person should have produced a body of poetry, which has been justly 

 considered as possessing so high a merit, • as to have given a new tone to poetry throughout 

 Europe ;'* but at the same time devoid of all modern allusion, and formed neither in its ima- 

 gery or expression on the model of those ancient authors, who have communicated their pecu- 

 liar colouring so generally, to all modem compositions, appears to be a circumstance still 

 more strange, than the supposition of the high antiquity which has been ascribed to iff 



Sir John Sinclair re-echoes the same sentiments. He has laboured 

 to prove — 



" 1st, That the poems of Ossian are authentic ancient poetry ; and 2nd, That in a remote 

 period of our history, the mountains of Scotland produced a bard whose works must ren- 

 der his name immortal, and whose genius has not been surpassed by the efforts of any 

 modem or even ancient competiton" 



Elsewhere we find these poems extolled as equal or superior to Homer 

 and Virgil, or if in any respect they are inferior to those of the father 

 of poetry, their tasteful defender can account for their inferiority ! 

 But notwithstanding the extravagant eulogies of Blair, Graham, 

 the Edinburgh Reviewers, and Sir John Sinclair ; Homer, nay even 

 Virgil, still holds a distinguished pre-eminence over Macpherson. 

 Had the poems of the latter been left to rest on their own intrinsic 

 merit, they would long since have sunk into oblivion. They derived 

 whatever interest they possessed from their supposed antiquity ; and 

 Hume, as has been already noticed, stated truly to Blair, that not- 

 withstanding all the varnish with which he covered them, they would 

 fall into discredit, unless their authenticity were proved. Accord- 



* Edinburgh Review, No. XII. Art. 7. f Graham's Introduction, pp. vii. viii. 



