12 OSS 
hinted that various pafiages in others of them were either 
compofed or altered by him. Whether or not we are to 
fet thefe confefiions to the account of Mr. Kennedy’s va¬ 
nity, it is impofllble for us to determine ; but it is gene¬ 
rally allowed that at lead: a confiderable part of the MSS. 
is of an ancient date. 
In the year 1730, Mr. John Clark, land-furveyor in 
Badenoch, publiflied tranflations of Gaelic poetry. The 
principal of thefe was a regular poem in-three books, two 
of which were afterwards publiflied in a verfe-t ran flat ion 
by Mrs. Grant of Laggan. In the fame year, Mr. Hill, in 
a tour through the Highlands, collected, chiefly from one 
Macnab, a blackfmith in Argylefliire, copies of feveral 
ancient poems; which, from the incidents they con¬ 
tain, and other internal evidence, mud be deemed of 
a iater date than that which Macpherfon is difpofed to at¬ 
tribute to the poems which he publiftied. Along with 
tranflations of thefe poems Mr. Hill gave the Gaelic ori¬ 
ginal ; and to the whole he fubjoined remarks on the au¬ 
thenticity of Macpherfon’s Oflian, which at that time had 
become the fubjedl of keen controverfy. 
But the mod voluminous collector of Gaelic poetry, 
fince the time of Macpherfon, was Dr. Smith, minifler of 
Campletown in Argylefliire. In the year 1780, he pub¬ 
liflied “ Differtations on Gaelic Antiquities,” to which he 
annexed a “ Collection of Ancient Poems, tranflated from 
the Gaelic of Oflian, Ullin, Oran, and othersand after¬ 
wards, in 1787, he publiflied the original Gaelic poems 
from which he profeffed to have tranflated that collection. 
Of thefe compoiitions, too, much has been afcribed to Dr. 
Smith as an author; and, as the doCtor declined giving 
a categorical anfwer to the queftions of Dr. Graham on 
this delicate point, we may perhaps' conftrue his filence 
into a tacit confeflion that he had at lead a {hare in the 
formation of the poems. It appears evident, however, 
from Dr. Graham’s literal tranflations of paffages in 
Smith’s Gaelic poems, compared with the Engliih ver- 
flons publiflied by the latter gentleman, that theie poems 
were originally compofed in Gaelic, which is at lead a 
Arong preemption in favour of their antiquity ; for, what¬ 
ever the oppofers of Macpherfon may allege refpeCting 
the poetical abilities of this gentleman, and other later 
collectors of Gaelic poems, it is improbable that, in the 
prefent date of Gaelic literature, (when the language is 
confeffedly declining in ufe,) and in the prefent altered 
date of manners and fociety in the Highlands, (which is 
by no means favourable to poetic genius,) perfons fliould 
dill be found capable of compoflng, in that language, 
poems equal in beauty and fublimity to what we might 
expeCt from a much more ancient, and, as far as genuine 
poetry is concerned, a more enlightened period. 
Some years after Dr. Smith had publiflied his trunjla- 
iious, but a year previous to the appearance of his ori¬ 
ginals, a large collection of Gaelic poetry, ancient and 
modern, was printed by Mr. John Gillies, a boolcfeller at 
Perth. Of this work we know nothing; but, in the opi¬ 
nion of Mr. Mackenzie, it has confiderable merit; though 
it is evident, from the manner in which it is arranged, 
that it was not prepared for the prefs with fufficient ac¬ 
curacy and attention. 
About the year 1784, Dr. Young, afterwards bifliop of 
Clonmore, made an excurfion through the Scottilh High¬ 
lands, for the purpofe of collecting all the information in 
his power concerning the authenticity of Macpherfon’s 
Oflian. The refult of his enquiries and invefligation he 
gave to the world in the fil'd volume of the TranfaCtions 
of the Royal Irifh Academy. It confided of fome rude 
ancient Gaelic poems refpeCting the race of the Fions, 
which we have already had occafion to notice and quote. 
Thefe poems Dr. Young tranfcribed letter for letter from 
the copies current in the Highlands, except fo far as they 
were corrected by the edition publiflied at Perth. Dr. 
Young does not mention the apparent antiquity of the 
MSS. from which he tranfcribed thefe ballads. 
Thefe are the principal collections of Gaelic poetry 
IAN. 
which have been publiflied, as preferved by tradition or 
in manufcript, in the Highlands of Scotland. In Ireland 
a collection made its appearance foon after Macpherfon’s 
Oflian; this confided of a tranflation in rhyme, by Mif’s 
Brooke, of fome Irifli ballads, which die fuppofes to be 
of a later date than that in which Oflian flouriflied, and 
probably of the eighth, ninth, and tenth, centuries. Mod 
of thefe Irifn poems relate to the Fingalians; but they 
differ both in the incidents wdiich they relate, and in their 
manner and flyle, from the poems under fimilar titles 
which have been collected in the Highlands of Scotland. 
One mod driking difference confids in the magical ma¬ 
chinery of the Irifli poems, inflead of the mere reference 
to the belief of the employment and intervention of de¬ 
parted fpirits, which the Fingalian poetry of the High¬ 
lands exhibits. 
Before we proceed to inquire into the authenticity of 
the poems of Oflian, we (hall endeavour to point out, in 
very few words, their mod driking charaCteriflics. 
On the firlt perufal of thefe poems, the reader is druck 
with their obfcurity ; he finds it necefiary to paufe and re¬ 
flect, before he can afcertain the meaning of many pafiages, 
or perceive and trace the connection of the narrative. 
Even after he has become accuflomed to the flyle, lie is 
obliged to leave in defpair many parts as abfolutely unin¬ 
telligible, or at lead as conveying no clear and diflinft 
idea or image to his mind. Befides this great fault, the 
poems labour under the imputation of being exceflively 
bombaflic and turgid ; fo that a reader of fade and judg¬ 
ment has feveral difliculties to overcome, before he can 
fit down to their perufal in fucli a date of mind and feeling 
as will permit and enable him calmly and impartially to ap¬ 
preciate their merits. And, even after he has got over the 
repugnance excited by their obfcurity and bombaflic flyle, 
he will be in danger of being repelled and difgufled by 
their fentimental effufions, which, in many indances, are 
of the mod romantic and fickly character. Still, how¬ 
ever, there is fomething in the poems which gets the bet¬ 
ter of all thefe objections, and which is more powerful in 
its attractions than the faults which we have noticed are 
in their repulfive quality. The great charaCteriflics of 
Oflian’s poetry, are undoubtedly, as Dr. Blair remarks, 
tendernefs and fublimity; but the tendernefs is pathetic, 
melancholy, and folemn ; and the fublimity is dreary, 
defolate, and gloomy. There is nothing gay or cheerful; 
the mind of the reader is prepared for the grave and fo¬ 
lemn events which they record, by the wild and romantic 
fcenery which they defcribe. The extended heath by the 
fea-fhore; the mountain fhaded with mid; the torrent 
rufiling through a folitary valley ; the fcattered oaks, and 
the tombs of warriors overgrown with rnofs;” all produce 
a folemn attention in the mind, and prepare it for great 
and extraordinary events. We agree with the French 
poet Lebrun : 
Homere, au foleil de la Grece, 
Emprunte fes plus doux rayons j 
Mais Oflian n’a point d’ivreffe: 
La lpne glace fes crayons. 
Sa fublimite monotone 
Plane fur de trifles climats ; 
C’efl un long orage qui tonne 
Dans la faifon des noirs frimas. 
De manes, de fantomes fombres, 
II charge les ailes des vents ; 
Et le fouffle des pales ombres 
Refroidit meme les vivans. 
Upon the whole, the merits of Oflian’s poetry mud be 
allowed to be great; it has alfo great faults: to thofe 
whofe judgment and fade have been difciplined by fludv, 
and formed on the models of antiquity, the faults will 
feem to counterbalance the beauties; but, in the opinion 
of the multitude, the beauties will preponderate, and with 
them the poems of Oflian will always be popular. 
Though 
