OSSIAN. 
defcribed by a aoe invented four years afterwards, 
{carcely ufed by the Romans till after the death of that 
emperor, and den. employed by the moft ancient hitto- 
rians:” an awkwafd and unfatisfa@tory attempt has been 
sig to get rid of this objeCtion, by obferving that Caracul, 
n Gaelic, means fierce-eyed. e Roman province of Va- 
lentia, into which pclae is epee as having made an 
t then exift; and Dumbarton, which is 
ems, was not then built; Lochlin was 
e third century, notwithftandin 
rkney, in 
which Inniftere is placed, if credit is given to the precife af- 
fertion of Solinus, rather than to the rhetorical period of 
Tacitus, was then uninhabited. It is unneceflary to go 
through the hiftorical deteGtions drawn from the middle 
ages ; they are equally numerous and Sa and are given 
with great acutenefs and learning by Mr. Laing. 
ipo ate to thefe ftrong prefumptions againft the 
anthenticity of 8 poems, and to the internal evidence 
of thei 
eir modern fae it would requi moft unequivecal 
and full proof, that they had been actually colleGed by 
m ancient manu- 
{cripts, in order to filence fcepticifm. 
miferably deficient, and, according to the acute obfervation 
. Laing ‘negative evidence with refpe& to the au- 
thenticity, becomes pofitive — with refpe& to the 
s from various mtters 
y thefe letters, is oaale of that fort againft which Dr. 
Johto protefted: he found in the 
S. faid to have been procured by 
Macpherfon, - always refufed to produce them, except 
one, whic aing examined, and which, inftead of being 
a of Offian n’s poems, is an Iri . ina character and 
language, which fearcely any Highlander can diftinétly read; 
and which, as far as it has 
the . 
mentioned, that Macpherfon left a fum of money 
purpofe of publifhing his Gaelic MSS. after his death; 
from fome caufe or other, their publication was delayed till 
the year 1807, when they appeared with a literal tranflation 
inte Latin, by the late Robert Macpherfon, A.M., together 
with a differtation on the authenticity of the poems, by fir 
John Sinclair; a tranflation on the abbé Cefarotti’s Differ- 
tation on the Controverfy, with notes, and a fupplemental 
was publifhed under 
roverfy ; but 
fome pie Se atked : the Gaelic poems ae publifhed, 
lands, and from lee if they really exifted, he muft have 
made his co To this no farsa ory anfwer can be 
en. On the margin of firft edition of his Offian, 
o talk of a tranflation being as pou aeed 
peak of an original being as com- 
would {care 
the tranflation, why oat he find little more pve 
original from which the tranflation was made? 
or y w give up 
their {cepticifm ; unlefs there had tes fat eaece evidence, 
that this Gaelic Offian had been copied from old MSS; for 
Macpherfon could forge i i 
old MSS; that he delayed publifhing the Gaelic 
during Ine -time, and that he was very flow in delivering it 
over to thofe to whom he hapa the agra con- 
firm the fafpicion ing, that he tranflated his 
Englifh Offian into Gaelic, and that this nen ek he left 
for publication after his dec 
7. Macpherfon publitied @ a en called the eet 
before he appeared as the tranflator of Offian’s 
the fimilarity between the Highlander and Offi ag in a 
{cription, fentiment, manner, and ftyle, is uncommonly ftrik- 
ing and clofe ; indeed Mr. Laing has proved that many paf- 
fages of the former were tranfcribed by Macpherfon into 
his Offian se by Mr. Laing seid 
teCted in the poems of Offi 
of Offian’s poems, either copied the authors we have men- 
tioned, or was fo ee imbued with their fpirit, that even 
his own Sain e of theirs. 
erfon, i aces antl 
t the poems 
a convenient indi ffere 
thor hears praife without being Dae. and hadley _ 
40 2 
