GAELIC LANGUAGE, ETC. 1 33 



persons in the Highlands and Islands as seemed Hkely to 

 afford information regarding the poems. It also obtained 

 from Dr Blair some correspondence he had had with various 

 persons when instituting a like investigation. The report, 

 which is from the pen of the Chairman of the Committee, 

 Mr Henry Mackenzie, is a most elaborate document, and 

 must have entailed a great deal of labour in its preparation. 

 Owing to its length, it was not given in the Societ}''s 

 Transactions, but was published separately in 1805. It 

 fills an octavo volume of upwards of 300 pages, of which 

 one-half consists of an appendix of documents and cor- 

 respondence. 



It is unnecessary here to enter on the argument of the 

 report, which is almost judicial in its impartiality ; but the 

 conclusions at which the Committee arrived may be stated. 

 With respect to the first branch of the inquiry — the exist- 

 ence in the Highlands of poetry known as Ossianic — the 

 Committee states ' with confidence that such poetry did 

 exist ; that it was common, general, and in great abun- 

 dance ; that it was of a most impressive and striking sort, 

 in a high degree eloquent, tender, and sublime.' The 

 second question, as to ' how far the collection of such 

 poetry, published by Mr James Macpherson, is genuine,' 

 the Committee observes ' it is much more difficult to 

 answer.' -It goes on to say — ' The Committee is possessed 

 of no documents to show how much of his collection Mr 

 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 (the 

 ipsissiina 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, 



