368] 
shall probably hear more of the 
same kind after the present poems 
make their appearance, Whether 
these suspicions are suggested by 
prejudice, or are only the effects 
of ignorance of facts, I shall not 
pretend todetermine. To me they 
give ‘no concern, as I have it al- 
ways in my power to remove them. 
An incredulity of this kind is na- 
tural to persons who confine all 
merit to their own ageand country. 
These are generally the weakest as 
well as the most ignorant of the 
people. Indolently confined to a 
place, their ideas are very nartow 
and circumscribed. It is ridicu- 
Jous enaugh, to sce such people as 
these are, branding their ancestors 
with the despicable appellation of 
barbarians. Sober reason can ea- 
sily discern where the ttle ought 
to be fixed with more propriety. 
“© As prejudice is always the ef- 
fe& of ignorance, the knowing, 
the men of true taste, despise and 
dismiss it. If the poetry is good, 
and the charaéters natural and. 
striking, to them it is a matter 
of indifference, whether the heroes 
were born in the little village of 
Angles in Juteland, or natives of 
the barren heaiths of Caledonia. 
‘That honour which nations derive 
from ancestors worthy or renown- 
ed is merely ideal. It may buoy 
up the minds of individuals, but it 
contributes very little to their im- 
portance in the eyes of others. 
But of all those prejudices which 
ate.incident to narrow minds, that 
which measures the merit of per- 
formances by the valgar opinicn 
concerning the country which pro- 
duced them, is certainly the most 
ridiculous. Ridiculous, however, 
as it is, few have the courage to 
reject it ; and 1 am thoroughly con- 
ANNUAL REGISTER;1795. 
vineed, that a few quaint lines of 
.a Roman or Greek epigrammatist, 
if dug out of the ruins of Hercu. 
Janeum, would meet with more 
cordial and universal applause than 
all the most beautiful and natural 
rhapsodies of all the Celtic bards 
and Scandinavian scalders that 
ever existed.’? 
After the publication of Temora, 
Mr. Macpherson was called to an 
employment which withdrew him 
for some time both from the muses 
and his country. In 1764 gover- 
nor Johnstone was appointed chief 
of Pensacola, and Mr, Macpherson 
accompanied him as his secretary. 
If we are not mistaken, some dif- 
ference arose between the princt- 
pal and his dependent, and they 
parted before their return to Eng. 
land. Having contributed his aid 
to the settlement of the civil go- 
vernment of that colony, he visited 
several of the West India islands, 
and some of the provinces of North 
America, and returned to Engiand 
in the year 1766. ; 
He soon returned to his studies, 
and in 1771 produced ‘* An Intro- 
duction to the History of Great 
Britain and Ireland,’’ 410. a work 
which, he says, ‘€ without any of 
the ordinary incitements to literary 
labour, he was induced to proceed 
in by the sole motive of private 
amusement.”’? The subjeét of this 
performance, it might reasonably 
be. supposed, would not excite any 
violent controversial acrimony ; yet 
neither it nor its author could 
escape from several most gross and 
bitter invectives. OS : 
His next performance produc- 
ed him neither reputation or pro- 
fit. In 1773 he published ‘* The 
Iliad of Homer’’ translated, in two 
volumes, gto. a work fraught with 
; vanity, 
