1892-93.] THE PRESENT ASPKCl' OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVEKSY. 333 



similar to those which were pubHshed by MacPherson existed in 

 many parts of the country and could be recited by men who 

 had never heard of MacPherson. The Report terminates with this very 

 decisive language concerning the prevalence of Ossianic poetry. "The 

 Committee can confidently state its opinion, that such poetry did exist ; 

 that it was common, general and in great abundance ; and that it was of a 

 most impressive and striking sort, in a high degree eloquent, tender 

 and sublime. The Committee is possessed of no documents to show, how 

 much of his collection MacPherson obtained in the form in which he has 

 given it to the world. The poems and fragments of poems which the 

 Committee has been able to procure contain often the substance, and 

 sometimes almost the literal expression — ipsissima verba — of passages 

 given by Mr. Macpherson in the poems of which he has published the 

 translations. But the Committee has not been able to obtain any one 

 poem the same in title and tenor with the poems published by him. It 

 is inclined to believe, that he was in use to supply chasms and to give 

 connection by inserting passages which he did not find, and to add what 

 he conceived to be dignity and delicacy to the original composition by 

 striking out passages, by softening incidents, by refining the language— 

 in short, by changing what he considered as too simple or too rude for a 

 modern ear, and elevating what in his opinion was below the standard of 

 good poetry. To what degree, however, he exercised these liberties, it is 

 impossible for the Committee to determine." Nine hundred lines, and 

 when the fragments are included 1,700 lines, of such poetry as that of 

 which MacPherson published a translation, are inserted in the Report 

 that we are now considering, Dr. Clerk is correct in his contention 

 that from the material in their possession, the members of the Committee 

 would be justified in drawing much stronger conclusions than they did 

 in favour of the authenticity of the poems of Ossian. As to the utter 

 lack of ability on the part of MacPherson to invent or forge the poems 

 of Ossian, these citations are sufficient: "Of all'tlu; men I ever knew," 

 writes Dr. Blair, "Mr. MacPherson was the most unlikely and unfit to 

 contrive and carry on such an imposture as some people in Kngland 

 ascribed to him. He had none of the versatility, the art and dissimu- 

 lation which such a character and such an undertaking would have 

 required." Captain Morrison, who was intimately acquainted with 

 MacPherson, writes that so far from composing such poems as were 

 translated, he assisted MacPherson often in un ierstanding some words 

 and suggested some improvements, and that MacPherson could as well 

 compose the prophecies of Isaiah or create the island of Skye as compose 

 a poem like that of Ossian's. The Committee of the Highland Society 

 showed no partiality whatever to MacPherson in the several ingenuous 



