Poems of Ossian by James MacPherson
THE POEMS OF OSSIAN
by
JAMES MACPHERSON
A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.
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 forever
ceased: since there appears cause to believe, that numbers who
listened with delight to "the voice of Cona," would have been happy,
if, seeing their own good, they had been content with these poems
accompanied by Dr. Blair's judgment, and sought to know no more.
There are men, however, whose ardent love of truth rises, on all
occasions, paramount to every other consideration; and though the
first step in search of it should dissolve the charm, and turn a
fruitful Eden into a barren wild, they would pursue it. For those,
and for the idly curious in literary problems, added to the wish of
making this new edition of "The Poems of Ossian" as well-informed as
the hour would allow, we have here thought it proper to insert some
account of a renewal of the controversy relating to the genuineness
of this rich treasure 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 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.
"I live in a place," he writes, "where I have the pleasure of
frequently hearing justice done to your dissertation, but never heard
it mentioned in a company, where some one person or other did not
express his doubts with regard to the authenticity of the poems which
are its subject; and I often hear them totally rejected with disdain
and indignation, as a palpable and most impudent forgery. This
opinion has, indeed, become very prevalent among the men of letters
in London; and I can foresee, that in a few years, the poems, if they
continue to stand on their present footing, will be thrown aside, and
will fall into final oblivion.
"The absurd pride and caprice of Macpherson himself, who scorns, as
he pretends, to satisfy anybody that doubts his veracity, has tended
much to confirm this general skepticism; 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 favor of the poems are very
convincing; so they are; but there are also internal reasons against
them, particularly from the manners, notwithstanding all the art with
which you have endeavored to throw a vernish 1 on that circumstance;
and the preservation of such long and such connected poems, by oral
tradition alone, during a course of 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
consigned to total oblivion. Now the testimonies may, in my opinion,
be of two kinds. Macpherson pretends there is an ancient manuscript
of part of Fingal in the family, I think, of Clanronald. Get that
fact ascertained by more than one person of credit; let these persons
by
JAMES MACPHERSON
A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.
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 forever
ceased: since there appears cause to believe, that numbers who
listened with delight to "the voice of Cona," would have been happy,
if, seeing their own good, they had been content with these poems
accompanied by Dr. Blair's judgment, and sought to know no more.
There are men, however, whose ardent love of truth rises, on all
occasions, paramount to every other consideration; and though the
first step in search of it should dissolve the charm, and turn a
fruitful Eden into a barren wild, they would pursue it. For those,
and for the idly curious in literary problems, added to the wish of
making this new edition of "The Poems of Ossian" as well-informed as
the hour would allow, we have here thought it proper to insert some
account of a renewal of the controversy relating to the genuineness
of this rich treasure 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 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.
"I live in a place," he writes, "where I have the pleasure of
frequently hearing justice done to your dissertation, but never heard
it mentioned in a company, where some one person or other did not
express his doubts with regard to the authenticity of the poems which
are its subject; and I often hear them totally rejected with disdain
and indignation, as a palpable and most impudent forgery. This
opinion has, indeed, become very prevalent among the men of letters
in London; and I can foresee, that in a few years, the poems, if they
continue to stand on their present footing, will be thrown aside, and
will fall into final oblivion.
"The absurd pride and caprice of Macpherson himself, who scorns, as
he pretends, to satisfy anybody that doubts his veracity, has tended
much to confirm this general skepticism; 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 favor of the poems are very
convincing; so they are; but there are also internal reasons against
them, particularly from the manners, notwithstanding all the art with
which you have endeavored to throw a vernish 1 on that circumstance;
and the preservation of such long and such connected poems, by oral
tradition alone, during a course of 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
consigned to total oblivion. Now the testimonies may, in my opinion,
be of two kinds. Macpherson pretends there is an ancient manuscript
of part of Fingal in the family, I think, of Clanronald. Get that
fact ascertained by more than one person of credit; let these persons
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