1892-93.] THE PRESENT ASPECT OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY. 325 



from those of the IHad, and will claim its place as the fifth national 

 epic of the world."* • 



Campbell may be regarded as the leader of those who in our day are 

 opposed to the contention, that MacPherson gave to the world a bona 

 Jide translation of poems which he collected in the Highlands, and which 

 he doubtless corrected and collated before he published them. Campbell's 

 categorical averment is thus expressed by him : " My theory, then, is 

 that about the beginning of the 1 8th century, or at the end of the i/th 

 century or earlier, Highland bards may have fused floating popular 

 traditions into more complete forms, engrafting their own ideas on what 

 they found, and that MacPherson found these works, translated and 

 altered them, published the translation in 1760, made the Gaelic ready 

 for the press, published some of it in 1763 and made away with the 

 evidence of what he had done when he found that his conduct was 

 blamed. I can see no other way out of the maze of testimony." No 

 unkindness is done to Campbell when it is stated, that his imagination 

 must have acted no insignificant part in leading him to the conclusion 

 which has been cited. It will be of advantage to advert to the 

 evidence which remains with regard to the use that MacPherson made 

 of the material collected by him in the Highlands. Dr. Blair states 

 that "after MacPherson returned to Edinburgh he took lodgings in 

 a house immediately below where Dr. Blair then lived, and that he 

 bu-^ied himself in translating from the Gaelic into English." Dr. Blair 

 goes on to say : " I saw him very frequently. He gave me accounts 

 from time to time how he proceeded, and used frequently at dinner 

 to read or repeat to me parts of what he had that day translated. 

 Gentlemen who knew Gaelic looked into his papers and saw some that 

 appeared to them to be old manuscripts." 



Mr. Alexander MacAulay, Highland chaplain in Edinburgh at that 

 time, thus writes : " I saw the originals which Mr. MacPherson collected 

 in the Highlands. Mr. Eraser will assure you that he saw them likewise, 

 and was frequently present with Mr. MacPherson when he was trans- 

 lating them, and no man will say that he could impose his own originals 

 upon us, if we had common sense, and a knowledge of our mother tongue. 

 The world may say of him and his translations what they please, but I 

 am convinced for my pirt that I heard most of these poems repeated 

 since I remiember anything at all" The testimony of Mr. Lachlan 

 MacPherson, of Strathniashie, is most valuable : " I assisted MacPher- 

 son," he writes, "in collecting the poems of Ossi.m, and took down from 

 oral tradition and transcribed from old MSS. by far the greater part of 



* Science of Language, ist series ; 317, 318. 



