OSS 
Though the publication of Fingal and Temora pro¬ 
cured for Macpherfon a confiderable fhare of public fa¬ 
vour, and were fupported by all the abilities and enthu- 
fiafm of Dr. Blair, yet, even on their firft appearance, 
perfons of talent and critical acutenefs openly avowed a 
difbelief of their authenticity. Many others, though dif- 
pofed to favour the poems and their editor, exprelled 
fcepticifm with refpeft to the manner in which the ori¬ 
ginals were faid to have been obtained, and the fidelity 
with which they had been tranflated. Among thefe may 
be ranked David Hume, wdio, in his letters to Dr. Blair 
on this fubjeft, written in 1763, and reprinted by the 
Highland Society in the beginning of their Report, inti¬ 
mates the fufpicions which heand others entertained, and 
points out the method in which he thinks thefe doubts 
are moft likely to be removed. From the firft of thefe 
letters, it appears that, immediately after the publication 
of the poems, many literary men rejedted them with dif- 
dain and indignation, as a palpable and moft impudent 
forgery; on the grounds, that the manners defcribed in 
the tranflations were not fuch as were likely to prevail at 
the early period which was aftlgned as the era of Oftian ; 
and that it was fcarcely poflible for fuch long and con- 
nedled compofitions to be preferved, by oral tradition 
alone, during the lapfe of fourteen centuries. 
Notwithftanding the ftatement of thefe difficulties, 
the editor refufed to fatisfy the world refpedting thofe 
points in which his veracity had been called in queftion ; 
and nothing of importance was publifhed on either fide, 
till Dr. Johnfon and Mr. Bofweli returned from their 
northern tour. During that journey, they had made fe- 
veral inquiries concerning the traditionary poems faid to 
exift among the Highlanders; but thefe inquiries were 
unfuccefsful, and tended to confirm the preconceived no¬ 
tions of Johnfon ; who, alw'ays prejudiced againft Scotch¬ 
men and Scottifh literature, had, almoft without exami¬ 
nation, condemned Macpherfon as a literary felon. Dr. 
Johnfon’s objections to the authenticity of OfTian’s poems 
reft almoft entirely on the idea that no written poems in 
the Gaelic language were then extant, and of courfe that 
the publifhed translations muft be a forgery: to this charge 
Macpherfon replied only by menaces and abufe; a con¬ 
duct which tended materially to injure his caule, and ftill 
farther to impugn his veracity. 
The fpirit of fcepticifm was not confined to the Englifli 
literati; but none of Mr. Macpherfon’s countrymen ap¬ 
peared openly as his opponents, till Mr. W. Shaw, author 
of the Gaelic Did!ionary and Grammar, publifhed in 1781 
“ An Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems afcribed 
to Offtan.” The arguments and affertions adduced in 
this inquiry were truly formidable, and to many readers 
appeared perfedlly conclufive. Mr. Shaw feemed to have 
proved that both the fable and the machinery of Mac¬ 
pherfon’s principal poems were Irifh; that none but Irifh 
MSS. had been or could be offered to the infpedtion of the 
public ; that many of the teftimonies adduced by Dr. 
Blair were either falfehoods or mifreprefentations; and 
that the principal literary charadfers of Scotland had en¬ 
gaged in a combination to fupport the caufe and credit of 
their countrymen, at the expenfe of honefty and truth. 
Oftian and his editor foon encountered a much more 
formidable, becaufe more refpectable, antagonift, in Mr. 
Malcolm Laing, who, at the end of his Hiliory of Scot¬ 
land, publifhed in 1800, gave an elaborate “ Differtation 
on Offian’s Poems;” in which he minutely examined the 
compofitions in queftion, and compared them with other 
publications of Mr. Macpherfon. In the controverfy on 
this fubjedl, before Mr. Laing took it up, the whole jet 
of the argument and proof lay on the existence, in tradi¬ 
tion or manufcript, of poems in the Highlands,compofed 
by Oftian, and fimilar in all their leading features to thofe 
publifhed by Macpherfon: the internal evidence, though 
generally mentioned by the difbelievers in their authen¬ 
ticity as ftrongly in favour of their opinion, was never 
minutely and thoroughly examined, before Mr. Laing in- 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1220. 
I x\ N. 13 
veftigated it. The objedlions to the authenticity of thefe 
poems may be thus ftated and arranged. 
1. It is highly improbable, that, at the time when Oftian 
lived, he could compofe fuch long and regular poems, 
without the ufe and aftiftance of letters; and the moft 
fturdy and zealous advocates for thefe poems will not 
contend that letters were known in the Highlands in the 
third century. It may indeed be urged, that Homer 
compofed his Iliad and Odyffey when he v’as equally a 
ftranger with Oftian to the ufe of letters; but of this af¬ 
fection there is no proof: the prefumption, on the con¬ 
trary, is, that in the time of Homer letters were known 
in Greece. It is fcarcely neceffary to dwell on the pofi- 
tion here laid down, that, if letters were unknown in the 
Highlands in the time of Oftian, that bard’s compofitions 
muft have been very fhort, and probably very irregular; 
certainly not of the defcription of poems which Macpher¬ 
fon publifhed in his name, and which Dr. Blair, in his 
Differtation, has proved to be written in exadt conformity 
to the rules which Ariftotle lays down for the compofi- 
tion of an epic poem. 
Even allowing that fuch long and regular poems could 
have been compofed without the ufe of letters, it is not 
credible that they could'have been tranfmitted from the 
time of Oftian to the time of Macpherfon, or at leaft to 
the time of the date of the moll ancient manufcripts 
found in the Highlands. This objection cannot be put 
in a ftronger way, than in the words in which Hume has 
expreffed it, in a letter to Gibbon : “ It is indeed ftrange, 
that any man of fenfe could have imagined it poffible, 
that above 20,000 verfes, along with numberlefs hiftorical 
fadts, could have been preferved by oral tradition, during 
fifty generations, by the rudeft, perhaps, of all civilized 
nations, the moft neceflitous, the moft turbulent, and the 
moft unfettled. There is nothing fimilar to this in any 
other language, or among any other nation : the Gothic 
poems are all fhort; the Death-fong of Radnor Lodbrog, 
which is amongrt the longeft pieces of Gothic poetry fup- 
pofed to be traditionally preferved, extends but to twen¬ 
ty-nine oftavo ftanzas, of fhort lines; and, in order to 
relieve the memory in this and other Gothic poems, there 
is always a burden. Befides, thefe ballads were written 
only a few centuries before letters were common among 
the Gothic nations ; and, confequently, their prefervation 
(independently of the circumftance of their fhortnefs) 
cannot be coniidered as in the leaft fimilar to the fuppofed 
prefervation of Ofiian’s poems.” 
2. The inconfiftency of the events related in thefe 
poems with the Roman hiltory of Britain, and with the 
hiftory of the middle ages, has been pointed out by Mr. 
Laing, as another proof of their forgery. “ The arrival 
or return of the Scots from Ireland, under Fergus Mac 
Erth, and his brother Loarn, is eftablifhed by the con¬ 
currence of every Scottifh and Irifh hiftorian ; and their 
firft arrival is marked by Bede, under Riada their leader, 
from whom their fettlement was named Dalriada:” hence 
it is an hiftorical fadf, that there was not a Highlander in 
Scotland, of the prefent race, at the beginning-of the era 
aftlgned to Fingal. This obfervation will derive great ad¬ 
ditional weight, if we have proved that Fingal and his 
heroes belong originally to Ireland ; and, confequently, 
were probably introduced to the knowledge of the High¬ 
landers at the era of the Dalriadic fettlement in Scotland. 
Fingal, in the poems publifhed by Macpherfon, is con- 
nedfed with Caracalla in 208, and with Caraufius in 286; 
and his reign and exploits are prolonged in the Temora 
to the battle of Gabhra, in 296 ; “ with the fame pro¬ 
priety (Mr. Laing obferves) as if a youthful patriot, who 
refilled a union in the Scotch parliament, were again in¬ 
troduced at the end of the century, oppolinga union with 
Ireland in the Britifh fenate!” 
3. With refpedt to the MSS. laid to have been procured 
by Macpherfon, he always refufed to produce them, ex¬ 
cept one, which Mr. Laing examined, and which, inftead 
of being a MS. of Offian’s poems, is an Irifh MS. in a 
E charadfer 
