To try by the strict rules of art such imperfect fragments, would be at once unprofitable and unfair. Nevertheless, there is something in these poems, marred and defective as they are, which forbids the most fastidious student of poetry to pass them by. Some sort of enduring

quality they must have: for, after fifty years of the wildest vicissitudes in poetic taste, they still continue to be read; nay, are read more and more eagerly, more and more extensively; and this not only by literary virtuosos, and that class upon whom transitory causes operate most strongly, but by all classes, down to the most hard, unlettered, and truly natural class, who read little, and especially no poetry, except because they find pleasure in it. The grounds of so singular and wide a popularity, which extends, in a literal sense, from the palace to the hut, and over all regions where the English tongue is spoken, are well worth inquiring into. After every just deduction, it seems to imply some rare excellence in these works. What is that excellence? Το answer this question will not lead us far. The excellence of Burns is, indeed, among the rarest, whether in poetry or prose; but, at the same time, it is plain and easily recognised-his sincerity, his indisputable air of truth. Here are no fabulous woes or joys; no hollow fantastic sentimentalities; no wiredrawn refinings, either in thought or feeling : the passion that is traced before us has glowed in a living heart; the opinion he utters has risen in his own understanding, and been a light to his own steps. He does not write from hearsay, but from sight and experience; it is the scenes he has lived and laboured amidst that he describes those scenes, rude and humble as they are, have kindled beautiful emotions in his soul, noble thoughts, and definite resolves ; and he speaks forth what is in him, not from any outward call of vanity or interest, but because his heart is too full to be silent. He speaks it, too, with such melody and modulation as he can; 'in homely rustic jingle; but it is his own, and genuine. This is the grand secret for finding readers and retaining them; let him who would move and convince others, be first moved and convinced himself. Horace's rule, Si vis me flere, is applicable in a wider sense than the literal one. every poet, to every writer, we might say: Be true, if you would be believed. Let a man but speak forth with genuine earnestness the thought, the emotion, the actual condition, of his own heart, and other men, so strangely are we all knit together by the tie of sympathy, must and will give heed to him. In culture, in extent of view, we may stand above the speaker, or below him; but in either case, his words, if they are earnest and sincere, will find some response within us; for in spite of all casual varieties in outward rank, or inward, as face anwsers to face, so does the heart of man to man."

James Macpherson.

BORN A. D. 1738.-DIED A. D. 1796.

Το

WHETHER it be true or not "that Fingal lived, and that Ossian sung," the editor or author of the Ossianic poems deserves a high place in our literature; granting that these poems are, in respect of their claims to high antiquity, a gross deception; still it must be allowed,

that the man who could plan and execute such a deception in the style, and with the success it has been done in this instance, was no common man. If Scotland never possessed a bard called Ossian, who sung the deeds of Fingal in strains worthy of that hero's prowess, she has at least in Macpherson a bard of no ordinary gifts, who has proved himself" capable not only of making an enthusiastic impression on every mind susceptible of poetical beauty, but of giving a new tone to poetry throughout all Europe," for such, unquestionably, was the first result of the publication of those extraordinary poems. Though some sneered, and many doubted; yet many more were enraptured at the discovery of a new school of poetry, and hastened, by imitating its style and manner, to enrol themselves amongst its disciples.

James Macpherson was the son of a small Scottish farmer in the parish of Kingussie, Inverness-shire. He received the rudiments of education at one of the parish schools in the district of Badenoch, and completed it at King's college and Marischal college, Aberdeen. After leaving college he taught the parish school of Ruthven in Badenoch for a few years; but at the period of his first appearance as an editor of the fragments of the Gaelic muse, he filled the office of private tutor in Graham of Balgowan's family. Two years previous to his assuming the character of a literary antiquary, he had published a poem in six cantos, entitled 'The Highlander.' We have not seen this book, but it is described by a very competent critic as "a common-place tale, full of those descriptions of natural scenery which were impressed on Macpherson's mind by his residence in a romantic and mountainous country, and which few poets have either conceived so warmly or painted so well." It was in the year 1761 that Macpherson surprised the world by the publication of Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse Language.' These fragments were exceedingly well-received, and a subscription was set on foot to enable the editor to continue his researches for similar relics of Gaelic literature. Thus aided and encouraged, Macpherson threw up his tutorship, and took a journey through the Highlands, in real or pretended search after the poetical remains of the native bards of former ages.

In 1762, he again presented the public with further relics of Gaelic poetry. His gift this time was nothing less than an entire epic on the deeds of Fingal, a Caledonian hero, contemporary with Caracalla, who was in Britain A. D. 208. The author of this epic was also announced to be Ossian, a son of the hero himself. The public received this work with equal raptures and equal credulity; and were rewarded for their faith and discernment, by the discovery and publication of another epic by the same ancient bard, called 'Temora,' and several minor pieces by the same hand. This volume was not quite so successful as its predecessor. The editor, emboldened by previous success, had become less careful of appearances, and adduced only an unsatisfactory array of authorities for the Temora.' In fact, the whole poem, with the exception perhaps of the death of Oscar, was the editor's own composition. Still there were not a few believers in the actual existence of the originals of all that Macpherson had given to the public in the character of an editor. Amongst others, Gray, the poet, Dr Blair, Edinburgh, Home, the author of 'Douglas,' and Dr Fergusson, were de

ceived by the pretended evidence offered by Macpherson, who in the meantime went abroad as secretary to Governor Johnstone, then appointed to Pensacola. He returned to England in 1766; and in 1771 published a work entitled 'An Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland,' which did not excite much attention. In 1773 he published a translation, in what may be called Ossianic prose, of the Iliad. This was an exceedingly unfortunate attempt, and drew upon him the ridicule of mostly all the existing literary journals.

- Macpherson's literary mortifications were now commencing. In 1773 Johnson made his celebrated tour in Scotland and the Hebrides, in the course of which he made occasional inquiries after the sources whence Macpherson pretended to have drawn his poems. The result, whether dictated by prejudice or not, was decided, and expressed in the narrative of this tour, which Johnson gave to the public in 1775, in the following words: "I believe they (the poems of Ossian) never existed in any other form than that which we have seen. The editor or author never could show the original; nor can it be shown by any other. To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt." It will not be thought any evidence in Macpherson's favour that he attempted to answer this very decided opinion by bullying the Doctor. He addressed a menacing letter to Johnson, which the latter answered in the following terms: "Mr James Macpherson, I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered to me I shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me. I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian. What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture; I think it an imposture still. For this opinion, I have given my reasons to the public, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morals inclines me to pay regard not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if you will. S. J." Macpherson attempted not a reply to this indignant retort.

In 1775, however, he again appeared as an author, in a work entitled, 'The History of Great Britain, from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover.' He also wrote two or three political pamphlets in support of ministers, during the American crisis; and was appointed British agent to the nabob of Arcot. The latter appointment was a highly lucrative one. He obtained, in connexion with it, a seat in parliament in 1780, but he never attempted to speak in the house. He died at his seat of Belville, near Inverness, on the 17th of February, 1796. His body, at his own request, was carried to Westminster, and buried in Poet's corner. He left £1000 to defray the expense of a publication of the originals of his Gaelic translations. This was executed under the sanction of the Highland Society of London, in 1807; but let it be remembered that all the manuscripts are in Macpherson's own hand-writing, and therefore are not entitled to be taken in evidence.

The reader who is curious to enter into the full merits of the Ossi

1 Boswell.

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anic controversy, may consult Dr Blair's Dissertation, the Report of the Highland Society, London: 1805,-Dr Graham's Essay, Edinburgh: 1807, and the 2d chapter of Dr Brown's History of the Highlands and Highland Clans,' vol. i. Glasgow: 1834,-for the arguments on behalf of the authenticity of these poems; and on the counter-side, Laing's edition of the poems of Ossian, Edinburgh : 1805,-Johnson's Tour,-and a very able and impartial critique in the 6th volume of the Edinburgh Review, from which we make the following extract.

"It is remarkable that the arguments produced for the poems of Ossian, have all reference to Macpherson's first publication, in which, doubtless, he thought it necessary to preserve a certain degree of caution, and to give as much authenticity to his poems as he could, consistently with his plan of kneading them into a cake of the right leaven for the sentimental and refined critics, whom it was his object to fascinate. Every tradition or morsel of ancient poetry which he could pick up, seems to have been carefully inserted in what seemed to be an advantageous and even prominent place; so that each piece was sure to recal to the Highlander some traditionary fact or legendary story with which he was well-acquainted, and which, perhaps, few were displeased to recognise in a garb so different from its native and rude dress, as to interest the admirers of poetry through all Europe. The weaving a web in which truth and falsehood should be warped and blended together in inseparable union, was too material an object for Macpherson to neglect any means to accomplish it. We should, therefore, even without the very respectable testimonies which have been brought forward by the Highland Society, have been most willing to believe that he made every exertion in his power to collect the remnants of legendary tales relating to the Fions, simply because it was his obvious interest to do so, if he meant to carry on his intended imposture with the least prospect of success. We also have no doubt that he was able to recover manuscripts perhaps of some antiquity, containing copies of the ballads, which he afterwards wrought up into epic poems. Nay, we are willing to go a good deal further, and to allow that Macpherson may have collected and used many original poems now lost. Indeed, as is well-stated by Mr Mackenzie, much difficulty must have arisen in the course of the Committee's investigation, 'from the change of manners in the Highlands, where the habits of industry have now superseded the amusement of listening to the legendary narrative, or heroic ballad; where, consequently, the faculty of remembering, and the exercise of repeating such tales and songs, are altogether in disuse, or only retained by a very few persons of extremely advanced age, or feeble health.' But still the great question remains to be solved,-Did Macpherson's translation of these poems, however numerous, correspond to the tone and spirit of the original; or were the expressions, the sentiment, the description in the greater part of them, his own; the story and the names alone adopted from the Gaelic ?

On this point, we cannot help thinking that Mr Laing ought to have printed with the Ossian of Macpherson, the ballads on which it is in part founded, and which are also referred to, both by individuals in the Highlands, and by the Committee themselves, as forming some of his originals. We have endeavoured to supply this deficiency, by giving

extracts from them in the course of our investigation; and, considering that much allowance ought to be made for the debased state of poetry preserved by oral tradition, we have endeavoured to select the most poetical passages. Still, however, the reader must have observed a prodigious and irreconcileable difference betwixt the Ossian of Macpherson and such of those ballads as come forward altogether unsophisticated. The latter agree in every respect with the idea we have always entertained of the poetry of a rude people. Their style is unequal; sometimes tame and flat; sometimes turgid and highly periphrastic; sometimes they rise into savage energy, and sometimes melt into natural tenderness. The subject of most is the battle or the chase: Love, when introduced, is the love of a savage state. Ossian comes to the dwelling of Branno of silver cups, and demands his daughter in marriage she is betrothed, without being consulted, and gives her hand to Ossian, whom she had then seen for the first time. In manners, the heroes are as rough as the ladies are frank and condescending. The wrangling which pervades their counsels, the jealousies betwixt Fingal and Gaul, are peculiar to a savage tribe; since the latter (we grieve to speak it) did not hesitate to knock the tuneful Carril upon the head for disputing with him the property of a beef steak dressed with onion sauce; (Appendix to the Report, No. XXII.) It is surely unnecessary to contrast these barbarous chiefs with the followers of Macpherson's Fingal: there, all is elegance, refinement, and sensibility; they never take arms, but to protect the feeble, or to relieve beauty in distress; they never injure their prisoners, nor insult the fallen and as to Fingal himself, he has all the strength and bravery of Achilles, with the courtesy, sentiment, and high-breeding of Sir Charles Grandison. But this difference is neither the most striking nor the most indelible mark of Macpherson's manufacture. He has not only refined and polished the manners of his heroes, but he has added to the tales a system of mythology, and a train of picturesque description and sentimental effusion, of which there is not the least trace in any Gaelic originals, saving those of Smith and Kennedy. The ghosts, which are the eternally recurring subject of simile and of description, we cannot trace in any Gaelic ballads. Macpherson was probably puzzled about his mythology, which the critics of that time thought essential to an epic poem. Christianity was out of the question, since it must have brought his heroes to a later period than was convenient; and it being a matter of great risk to imitate George Psalmanazzaar, by inventing for the Fenii a new system of supernatural belief, he was forced to confine himself to the vulgar superstition concerning the spirits of the departed, common to the Highlanders with the ignorant in all nations, and which, if it promised nothing very new or striking, had the advantage of not exposing him to detection. The translator of Fingal seems indeed to have resolved, with the steward in Gay's 'What-d'ye-call-it,' that the reader should not only have ghosts, but a plurality of them; and, though attended with great effect on some particular occasions, the frequent and useless appearance of these impotent phantoms, impresses us rather with contempt, than with fear and reverence. The situation of Ossian himself is another circumstance which Mr Macpherson has. heightened and improved, so as to produce much poetical effect. In the genuine poems, indeed, he often alludes to his age; but the frequent