632 MK SMALL S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PROF. ADAM FERGUSON. 



From James M'Pheeson's friendship with Ferguson, Blair, and Principal 

 Robertson, and from the high approval which these eminent men bestowed on 

 his labours, they were subjected along with M'Pherson to various attacks and 

 misrepresentations. In particular, Ferguson and Blair were, in 1781, charged 

 by Dr Percy with having perpetrated upon him a practical joke relative to the 

 poems of Ossian, when he visited Dr Blair at Edinburgh in 1765. 



The immediate cause of this matter being revived so long after the time when 

 it happened was the publication, in 1781, of ' An Enquiry into the Authenticity 

 of the Poems ascribed to Ossian,' by William Shaw, the author of various 

 Gaelic works. 



From the several letters written on the occasion, we learn that in October 

 1765 Dr Percy, when travelling in Scotland, had been for a few days the guest 

 of Dr Blair, at the time an enthusiastic admirer of the Ossianic poems. Blair, 

 according to Percy's statement, carried him to Ferguson's house, that he might 

 have an opportunity of hearing some of the original Gaelic of the poem of Fingal 

 recited to him by a native of the Highlands. After the recitation took place, Dr 

 Percy was called upon by Blair to mention in print this circumstance, as a 

 proof of the genuineness of the Gaelic poetry of Scotland. The Doctor, who was 

 then preparing for the press the second edition of his famous ' Reliques of 

 English Poetry,' accordingly inserted the following paragraph : — " Concerning 

 the bards of Gaul ... no remains of their poetry are now extant ; but as for 

 those of Britain and Ireland, they have been more fortunate. . . . For an 

 account of the Irish bards, the curious reader may consult O'Connor's ' Disserta- 

 tions on the History of Ireland,' Dublin, 1776 ; Spencer's ' View of the State of 

 Ireland,' &c. &c. But no pieces of their poetry have been translated, unless their 

 claim may be allowed to those beautiful pieces of Erse poetry which were lately 

 given to the world in an English dress by Mr M'Pherson ; several fragments of 

 which the editor of this book has heard sung in the original language, and 

 translated viva voce by a native of the Highlands, who had at the time no oppor- 

 tunity of consulting Mr M'Pherson' s book."* 



In 1781, when the controversy regarding the genuineness of Ossian was at 

 its height, this statement of Dr Percy was Jfdduced in favour of M'Pherson, by 

 the Rev. John Smith, minister of Kilbrandon, in his ' Gallic Antiquities,' a work 

 which contained, among other matters, a ' Dissertation on the authenticity of 

 the Poems of Ossian.' In this dissertation the author stated, that " amidst the 

 general wreck to which our traditions and poems have fallen for some time back, 

 many pieces of Ossian are still remaining, and are found to correspond with the 

 translation. A Highlander may perhaps be suspected of partiality in making 

 this assertion ; but several gentlemen of candour from other countries have made 



* " Reliques," 2d ed. ; vol. i. p. 45. 



