1304.]J 
men of letters in London ; and I can fore- 
fee, that in a few years the poems, if they 
continue to {tand on their prefent footing, 
will be thrown afide, and will-fall into 
final oblivion. It is in vain to fay that 
their beauty will fupport them, imdepen- 
_ dent of their authenticity. No: that 
beauty is not fo much to the general 
tafte as to infure you of this event ; and 
if people be once difgufted with the idea 
of a forgery, they are thence apt to enter- 
tain a more difadvantageous notion of 
the excellency of the produétion itfelf.— 
The abfurd pride and caprice of Mac- 
pherfon himfelf, who {corns, as he pre~ 
tends, to fatisfy any body that doubts his 
veracity, has tended much to confirm this 
general {cepticifm : and I muft own, for 
my own part, that: though I have had 
miany particular reafons to believe thefe 
poems genuine, more than it is poffible 
for any Englifhman of letters to have, yet 
I am not entirely without my fcruples on 
that head. You think that the internal 
proofs in favour of thefe poems are very 
convincing. So they are: but there are 
alfo internal reafons againft them, particu- 
larly from the manners, notwithitanding 
all the art with which you have endea- 
voured to throw a varnifh on that circum- 
ftance : and the prefervation of fuch" long 
and fuch connected poems by oral tradi- 
tion alone, during a courfe of fourteen 
centuries, is fo muchout of the ordinary 
courle of human affairs, that it requires 
the ftrongeft reafons to make us believe it. 
My prefent purpofe, therefore, is to apply 
to you, in the name of all the men of this, 
and, I may fay, of all other countries, to - 
eftablith this capital point, and to give us 
proofs that thefe Poems are, I do not fay 
fo ancient as the age of Severus, but that 
they were not forged within thefe five 
years, by James Macpherfon. Thefe 
proofs muft not be arguments, but tefti- 
monies. People’s ears are fortified againtt 
the former ; the latter may yet find their 
way, before the Poems are configned to 
total oblivion. Now, the teftimonies may, 
in my opinion, be of two kinds. Mac- 
pherfon pretends that there is an ancient 
MS. of part of Fingal in the family,’ I 
thnk, of Clanronald. Get this fa& afcer- 
tained by more than one perfon of credit : 
Jet thefe perfons be acquainted with the 
Gaelic ; let them compare the original 
ani ithe eranflation, and let them tettify the 
fidelity of the latter. 
_ But the chief point in which it will be 
neceflary for you to exert yourfelf, will be, 
to get pofitive teitimony, from many dif- 
feventihands, that fuch poems are vulgarly 
* 
From the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 365 — 
recited in the Highlands, and have been 
there long the entertainment of the people. 
This teftimony muft be as particular ag- 
it is pofitive. It will not be fufficient 
that a Highland gentleman, or clergyman, 
fay, or write, to you, that he has heard 
fuch poems. Nobody quefticns that there 
are traditional poems in that part of the 
country, where the names of Offian and 
Fingal, and Ofcar and Gaul, are mene 
tioned in every ftanza. The only doubt 
is, whether thefe poems have any farther 
refemblance to the Poems publifhed by 
Macpherfon, I was told by Burke, a 
very ingenious [rifh gentleman, author of 
a Tract on the Sublime and Beautiful, 
that, on the firft publication of Macpher- 
fon’s book, all the Irith cried out, “* We 
know all thefe poems—we have always. 
heard them from our infancy :’? but when 
he afked more particular quefiions, he. 
could never learn that any one had ever 
heard, or could repeat, the original of any 
one paragraph of the pretended Tranfla~ 
tion. 
This generality, then, mutt be carefully 
guarded againft, as being of no authority. 
Your connections among your brethren of 
the clergy may here be of great ule to you, 
You may eafily learn the names of all the 
minifters of that country who underftand 
the language of it. You may write to 
them, exprefling the doubts that have 
arifen, ani defiring them to ‘end for fuch 
of the bards as, remain, and make them 
rehearfe their ancient poems. Let the 
clergymen have the Tranflation in their 
hands, and Ict them write back to you, 
and inform you, that they heard fuch an 
one, (naming him,) living in {uch a place, 
rehearfe the original of fuch a paflage, 
from fuch a page to fuch a page of the 
Englith Tranflation, which appeared exaét 
and faithful. If you give to the publie 
a fufficient number of iuch teftimonies, 
you may prevail. But I venture to fore- 
tel to you, that nothing Jes will fo mach 
as command the attention of the public. 
Becket tells me, that he is to give usa 
new edition of your Diflertation, accom- 
panied with fome remarks on Temora 
here is a. favourable opportunity for you 
to execute th's purpofe. You have a juft 
and a laudable zeal for the credit of ‘thefe 
Poems. They are, if genuine, one of 
the greatei curiofities, in all refpects, that 
ever was difcovered in the common ~ealth 
of letters, and the child is, in a manner, 
become your’s by adoption, as Macpher- 
fon has totally abandoned all care of it.— 
Thefe motives call upon you to exert 
yourfelf; and I think it were fuitable to 
your 
