64 INTR ODUCTION to 



inclofed anfwer, and he tranfmitted to me, at the fame time, 

 the original manufcript in Mr COLLINS'S handwriting. It is 

 evidently the prlma cura of the poem, as you will perceive 

 from the alterations made in the manufcript, by deleting many 

 lines and words, and iubftituting others, which are written 

 above them. In particular, the greateft part of the twelfth 

 ftanza is new-modelled in that manner. Thefe variations I have 

 marked in notes on the copy which is inclofed, and I think 

 they mould be printed : For literary people are not indifferent 

 to information of this kind, which Ihews the progreflive im- 

 provement of a thought in the mind of a man of genius. 



THIS ode is, beyond all doubt, the poem alluded to in the 

 life of COLLINS by JOHNSON, who, mentioning a vifit made 

 by Dr WARTON and his brother to the poet in his laft illnefs, 

 fays, " He {hewed them, at the fame time, an ode, infcribed to 

 " Mr JOHN HOME, on the fuperftitions of the Highlands, 

 " which they thought fuperior to his other works, but which 

 " no fearch has yet found." COLLINS himfelf, it appears from 

 this paffage,, had kept a copy of the poem, which, confidering 

 the unhappy circumftances that attended his laft illnefs, it is 

 no wonder was miflaid or loft ; and, but for that fortunate 

 hint given by JOHNSON, it appears from Dr CARLYLE'S letter, 

 that the original manufcript would, in all probability, have un- 

 dergone the fame fate. 



STRUCK with the fingular beauty of this poem, of which, I 

 believe, no man of tafte will fay that Dr WARTON and his bro- 

 ther have over-rated the merit, I could not help regretting the 

 mutilated form in which it appeared ; and, in talking on that 

 fubjecT; to my friend Mr HENRY MACKENZIE of the Exchequer, 

 (a gentleman well known to the literary world by many ingenious 

 productions) I propofed to him the tafk of fupplying the fifth 

 ftanza, and the half of the fixth, which were entirely loft. 

 How well he has executed that talk, the pxiblic will judge; 

 who, unlefs warned by the inverted commas that diftinguifh 



the 



