398 ' THE AUTHENTICITY OF 



greater justice would have been done to the venerable bard of 

 Selma. 



It was in 1773 that Johnson paid his well-known visit to the 

 Hebrides. Any candid reader of his " Tour in the Hebrides " will 

 admit, that he spoke very disparagingly of the civilization of the 

 Highlands. His narrative indicates that he was prejudiced, and 

 therefore unfitted for acting the part of an impartial critic. At any 

 rate, his stay was of very short duration, and the knowledge which 

 he could gather must have been very inaccurate. " Of the Gaelic 

 language," he says, " as I understood nothing, I cannot say more 

 than I have been told : it is the rude speech of a barbarous people, 

 who had few thoughts to express, and were content, as they conceived 

 grossly, to be grossly understood. Five hundred lines cannot be 

 recovered in the whole Erse language of which there is any evidence 

 that they are a hundred years old. They, i.e., the inhabitants of the 

 Highlands, have enquired and considered little, and do not always 

 feel their ignorance. They are not much accustomed to be interro- 

 gated by others, and seem never to have thought upon interrogating 

 themselves ; so that if they do not know what they tell to be true, 

 they likely do not perceive it to be false." For the hospitality with 

 which he was treated by the Highland lairds and ministers, Johnson 

 made a very sorry requital. The Dean of Lismore's Book, to which 

 reference has been already made, clearly refutes the objection that no 

 poem existed which was a hundred years old. The disparaging 

 remarks of Johnson respecting the ignorance and untruthfulness of 

 the Highlanders could proceed only from strong dislike and precon- 

 ceived opinions. I have heard a gentleman recite a Gaelic poem in 

 which Johnson is ridiculed in very severe terms. Though this satire 

 is couched in very elegant language, I have never been able to see it 

 in print. Owing, however, to the lofty position occupied by Johnson 

 in the literary world, his very unfavourable delivei^ance could not 

 fail to have an injurious effect on the poems of Ossian. 



Laing, the historian, was also a determined opponent of the poems 

 of Ossian. He accused MacPherson of plagiarism, and had recourse 

 to very ingenious arguments to make this accusation valid. He took 

 unwarrantable advantage of certain concessions made by MacPherson. 

 " MacPherson," he says, " has acknowledged from the beguining the 

 deceit. ' It would be a very uncommon example of self-denial in me 

 to disown them, were they really of my composition.'" The plau- 



