OSSIAN. 
romore, in a let- 
uoted by the Brittfh Critic, for 1809, 
) fays, “I repeatedly received the moft pofitive af- 
from fir John Elliot, the confidential friend o 
ter to a friend 
p- 2 
«275. 
furances 
om 
oetry, preferved by tradition ; 
not communicate to me as the refult of one fingle conver- 
fation, but what he was fully affured of, by repeated con- 
verfations, during the intimacy of many years.”’ 
In the year 1797, the Highland Society of Edinburgh 
appointed a committee to enquire into the nature and au- 
thenticity of the poems of Offian. By the direction of this 
committee, queries very diftin@ly and accurately worded, 
were tran{mitted to every one, who from perfonal know- 
after the firft appearance of the poems of Offian 
pherfon. Dr. Blair had written to Hume refpeGting the 
reception. in England, of his differtation on thefe poems: 
rv. Hume, in his anfwer, mentions the general incredulity 
of the Englih literati on their authenticity, arifing partly 
from the behaviour of 
a Highland gentleman or clergyman fay, or write to you 
poems: nobody queftions that there 
are traditional poems in that part of the country, where 
the names of Offia ( 
4. 
produced on the report of the Highland Society, is quite ex- 
i ates and wifhes 
to guard Dr. Bla 
to the point, only confirms that fcepticifm which it was in- 
tended to remove; fince it only proves that there were in 
the Highlands MSS. and traditionary ballads, re{fpecting Fin- 
gal and his heroes, attributed to Offian, of which ballads 
Macpherfon had made ufe, but which were zot the originals 
of his poems. 
In the report it is exprefsly admitted, that the com- 
ighland Society employed 
the late Dr. Smith to collec fuch 
modern MSS. were taken, containing many hundred pages, 
and confifting of different colle€tions of Erfe and Irith 
defultory as the lines themfelves are unconneéted and 
hed.” M aing then gives fome fpecimens of this 
mode of piecing poetry together; and concludes with this 
remark : “This, if praGtifed in any other language than 
Erfe, would be deemed fabrication.”? This patch-work 
poetry has been happily likened to the expedient of brother 
Martin, in the Tale of a Tub, to difcover authority in his 
father’s will for wearing fhoulder-knots: as t ere not 
exprefsly mentioned, he fought them firlt, totidem verbis, 
then totidem fyllabis ; and at latt, all failing, totidem literis. 
ere can be no doubt that Macpherfon colleéted Gaelic 
poetry, and made ufe of it in his Offian 
ct 
py 
ic} 
ms 
he form of a regular epic poem. tory of the ballad 
bears fome refemblance to that of Fingal ; but in the former 
there 
