lection, written in ^ne la7'ge Irish characters; for even Mr. Macgilli- 

 vray says, "he has a sort of reinemhrance^ that he (Farquharson)/re- 

 quently mentioned his having got a great many of the poems from Mrs. 

 Fraser." That such poems as either Fingal or Temora ever existed in 

 their present form, in the Graehc language, until they were translated 

 into it from the English, we are forbidden to believe by the irrefutable 

 internal evidence, to say nothing of the external, by which such an 

 hypothesis is overthrown. How many in the Highlands of Scotland 

 have been heard to assert, that they well knew those who could repeat 

 the whole of Ossian's Poems in their native Erse ? But when brought 

 to the proof, it was found that they had only indulged a popular fal- 

 lacy, engendered by imagination, from some bardic song or wandering 

 tradition. Could the Douay MS. be restored, and we regret as much 

 as Sir John Sinclair himself, that it cannot, we are strongly inclined 

 to think that it would corroborate the justice of our opinion, and shew 

 that the poems which Mr. Macgillivray is pleased, after Macpherson, 

 to denominate Fingal and Temora, are no other than Erragon, Mag- 

 nus More, or some other of the well-known Irish tales. But if they 

 were really what he supposes and affirms them to have been, is it, in 

 the least degree, credible that their existence should be confined to 

 a single copy, or at most, to a second, in the hands of Macpherson, 

 while copies of far inferior compositions, are to be found in the libra- 

 ry of every curious collector ? Is it not contrary to all human expe- 

 rience to suppose that the worthless is preserved, while the valuable 

 is left to perish ? Homer lives ; Choerilus and all the cyclical poets 

 have died. 



But if there was only one copy left of the genuine Ossian in the 

 original tongue, wherefore was it not preserved ? Why did not the 

 friends of Scotland, in Douay, guard the MS. as the palladium of 

 their country ? There is not, perhaps, in the records of literature, a 



