226 Poetry. 



controversies in the literary world, and concerning 

 which much diversity of opinion exists to the pre- 

 sent day. The events alluded to are the publi- 

 cation of the poems of Chatter ton, an extraor- 

 dinary youth of Bristol, in South-Britain ; and the 

 collection and exhibition, in a regular form, of the 

 works of Ossian, by Mr. James Macpherson, a 

 man who, by the connection of his name with these 

 poems alone, has attained high celebrity in the 

 republic of letters. 



In 1760 Mr. James Macpherson, of North- 

 Britain, surprised the world by the publication of 

 " Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the 

 Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the 

 Gaelic or Erse language. " In 1762 he published 

 " Fingal, an Epic Poem, in six books, together 

 with several other poems, composed by Ossian, the 

 son of Fingal ;" and again in 1763 he produced 

 t€ Temora, an Ancient Epic Poem, in eight books,'* 

 with several additional poems. These were all 

 ascribed to Ossian, an ancient Scottish bard/ and 

 were declared by the publisher to have been col- 

 lected, partly from old manuscripts, and partly 

 from oral tradition. 



Few of the literary controversies of the age ex- 

 cited more attention than that which immediately 

 arose respecting the authenticity of these poems. 

 By many learned men their antiquity ,was readily 

 admitted, and their reception, particularly on the 

 continent of Europe, was extremely favourable. 

 There were not wanting enthusiastic admirers, 

 who even placed Ossian on the same shelf with 

 Homer and Virgil; who dwelt with rapturous 

 praise on his stupendous merits; and made the 

 most profuse acknowledgments to the man, who 



p This poet is said, by those who believe in the authenticity of the poem* 

 in question, to have flourished about the end of the second, and the begin- 

 sing of the third century. 



