ADVERTISEMENT.

THE HE publication of a new edition of Ossian's poems was indispensable, the former edition having been out of print some time since, and the calls for these poems so frequent that their present appearance may be looked upon as a sufficient apology for the publisher.

To enlarge upon the merits of the venerable bard is not in the province of the publisher, a mere reference to the very copious dissertations on the poems of Ossian prefixed to this edition will suffice the reader the name of Ossian stands too highly con

spicuous in poetry, as to require any further commendation

who that admires poetry will listen with delight to the voice of

Cona *.

With regard to the exterior the publisher begs leave to state that the same correctness will be found in this volume as in his

previous publications of the works of Moore, Sheridan, &c.

* See page 112.

The

A

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

instituted for the purpose of leaving, with regard to this matter, 'no hinge or loop to hang a doubt on,' has been laid before the public. As the Committee, in this investigation, followed, in a great measure, that line of conduct chalked out by David Hume to Dr. Blair, we shall, previously to stating their precise mode of proceeding, make several large and interesting extracts from the historian's two letters on this subject.

As Swift has, with some reason, affirmed that all sublunary happiness consists in being well deceived, it may possibly be the creed of many, that it had been wise, if, after Dr. Blair's ingenious and elegant Dissertation on 'the venerable Ossian,' all doubts respecting what we have been taught to call his works had for ever ceased; since there appears cause to believe, that numbers who listened with delight to 'the voice of Cona,' would have been happy, if, seeing 'I live in a place,' he writes, "where I their own good, they had been content have the pleasure of frequently hearing juswith these Poems accompanied by Dr. Blair's tice done to your Dissertation, but never judgment, and sought to know no more. heard it mentioned in a company, where There are men, however, whose ardent love some one person or other did not express of truth rises on all occasions paramount to his doubts with regard to the authenticity every other consideration; and though the of the poems which are its subject, and 1 first step in search of it should dissolve often hear them totally rejected with disdain the charin, and turn a fruitful Eden into a and indignation, as a palpable and most barren wild, they would pursue it. For impudent forgery. This opinion has, indeed, these, and for the idly curious in literary become very prevalent among the men of problems, added to the wish of making this letters in London; and I can foresee, that new edition of "The Poems of Ossian' as in a few years the poems, if they continue well-informed as the hour would allow, we to stand on their present footing, will be have here thought it proper to insert some thrown aside, and will fall into final oblivion. account of a renewal of the controversy "The absurd pride and caprice of Macrelating to the genuineness of this rich trea-pherson himself, who scorns, as he pretends, sure of poetical excellence.

Nearly half a century has elapsed since the publication of the poems ascribed by Mr. Macpherson to Ossian, which poems he then professed to have collected in the original Gaelic during a tour through the Western Highlands and Isles; but a doubt of their authenticity nevertheless obtained, and from their first appearance to this day has continued in various degrees to agitate the literary world. In the present year, 'A Report *,' springing from an inquiry

A Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the Poems of Ossian. Drawn up, according to the directions of the Committee, by Henry Mackenzie, Esq. its convener, or chairman. With a copious Appendix, containing some of the principal documents on which the Report is founded. Edinburgh, 1805.' 8vo. page 343.

to satisfy any body that doubts his veracity, has tended much to confirm this ge- › neral scepticism; and I must own, for my part, that though I have had many particular reasons to believe these poems genuine, more than it is possible for any Englishman of letters to have, yet I am not entirely without my scruples on that head. You think, that the internal proofs in favour of the poems are very convincing: so they are; but there are also internal reasons against them, particulary from the manners notwithstanding all the art with which you have endeavoured to throw a vernish * on that circumstance; and the preservation of such long and such connected poems, by oral tradition alone, during a course of

* So in MS.

as remain, and make them rehearse their ancient poems. Let the clergymen then have the translation in their hands, and let them write back to you, and inform you, that they heard such a one (naming him), living in such a place, rehearse the original of such a passage, from such a page to such a page of the English translation, which appeared exact and faithful. If you give to the public a sufficient number of such testimonies you may prevail. But I venture to foretel to you, that nothing less will serve the purpose; nothing less will so much as command the attention of the public.

was

fourteen centuries, is so much out of the ordinary course of human affairs, that it requires the strongest reasons to make us believe it. My present purpose, therefore, is to apply to you, in the name of all the men of letters of this, and, I may say, of all other countries, to establish this capital point, and to give us proofs that these poems are, I do not say, so ancient as the age of Severus, but that they were not forged within these five years by James Macpherson. These proofs must not be arguments, but testimonies: people's ears are fortified against the former; the latter may yet find their way, before the poems are 'Becket tells me, that he is to give us a consigned to total oblivion. Now the testi- new edition of your Dissertation, accommonies may, in my opinion, be of two kinds. || panied with some remarks on Temora. Here Macpherson pretends that there is an an- is a favourable opportunity for you to execient manuscript of part of Fingal in the cute this purpose. You have a just and family, I think, of Clanronald. Get that laudable zeal for the credit of these poems. fact ascertained by more than one person They are, if genuine, one of the greatest of credit; let these persons be acquainted curiosities in all respects that ever with the Gaelic; let them compare the ori- discovered in the commonwealth of letters; ginal and the translation; and let them and the child is, in a manner, become yours testify the fidelity. of the latter. by adoption, as Macpherson has totally 'But the chief point in which it will be abandoned all care of it. These motives necessary for you to exert yourself, will call upon you to exert yourself; and I think be, to get positive testimony from many it were suitable to your candour, and most different hands that such poems are vul- satisfactory also to the reader, to publish garly recited in the Highlands, and have all the answers to all the letters you write, there long been the entertainment of the even though some of those letters should people. This testimony must be as parti- make somewhat against your own opinion cular as it is positive. It will not be suf- in this affair. We shall always be the more ficient that a Highland gentleman or cler-assured, that no arguments are strained gyman say or write to you that he has heard such poems: nobody questions that there are traditional poems in that part of the country, where the names of Ossian and Fingal, and Oscar and Gaul, are mentioned in every stanza. The only doubt is, whether these poems have any farther resemblance to the poems published by Macpherson. I was told by Bourke *, a very ingenious Irish gentleman, the author of a tract on the sublime and beautiful, that on the first publication of Macpherson's book, all the Irish cried out, "We know all those poems. We have always heard them from our infancy.' But when he asked more particular questions, he could never learn that any one had ever heard or could repeat the original of any one paragraph of the pretended translation. This generality, then, must be carefully guarded against, as being of no authority.

"Your connexions among your brethren of the clergy may be of great use to you. You may easily learn the names of all ministers of that country who understand the language of it. You may write to them, expressing the doubts that have arisen, and desiring them to send for such of the bards

* So in MS.

beyond their proper force, and no contrary arguments suppressed, where such an entire communication is made to us. Becket joins me heartily in that application; and he owns to me, that the believers in the authenticity of the poems diminish every day among the men of sense and reflection. Nothing less than what I propose can throw the balance on the other side.'

Lisle Street, Leicester Fields,

19th Sept. 1763.

The second letter contains less matter of

importance; but what there is that is relevant deserves not to be omitted.

'I am very glad,' he writes on the 6th of October, 1763, 'you have undertaken the task which I used the freedom to recommend to you. Nothing less than what you propose will serve the purpose. You need expect no assistance from Macpherson, who flew into a passion when I told him of the letter I had wrote to you. But you must not mind so strange and heteroclite a mortal, than whom I have scarce ever known a man more perverse and unamiable. He will probably depart for Florida with governor Johnstone, and I would advise him to travel