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presented to us under the same circumstances; the original lost, or withheld, and nothing remaining to us but Mr Macpherson's translation, still there is no doubt that Homer, even thus mutilated and disguised, would have commanded the respect that is due to his transcendent genius.

Add to all this, that it is hoped it will be made to appear, in the sequel of this argument, that Mr Macpherson, in his translation, has also done injustice to Ossian; and that, when certain writers have amused themselves with criticising some phrases and images, which occur in his work, it is not Ossian, but his translator, who is the subject of their animadversion. Though this, indeed, is a topic which cannot receive its full weight, till we have before us the whole originals, or a translation, on the fidelity of which we can rely, still, it may be observed, that we are already in possession of suffi

cient materials, to enable us to judge of the internal evidence which these Poems afford of their authenticity; and to conclude, that the Gaelic of Ossian has suffered as much under Mr Macpherson's hands as the Greek of Homer.

SECTION X.

Internal Evidence of the Authenticity of these Poems. - Exemplified by a literal Translation of the Seventh Book of Temora, published, in the Original, by Mr Macpherson, at an early Period, compared with his own Translation.-That Mr Macpherson has, in many instances, in his Translation, suppressed and added; and that he has frequently misunderstood his Original.-Testimonies of his having been but very imperfectly skilled in the Gaelic Language.

THE peculiar circumstances in which we stand, with respect to the great bulk of the Gaelic poetry which has been translated by Mr Macpherson, render it extremely difficult to form a just estimate of the amount of that evidence which might be deduced from the style, the manners, and the imagery which

peculiarly characterise these Poems. We have the translation before us; but without the original, with which to compare it, it appears to be almost impossible to ascertain precisely the degree of colouring which it may have received from the particular taste, the habits of thinking, and the literary acquirements of the translator.

Mr Macpherson, in one of the earlier editions of these Poems, published the Seventh Book of Temora in the original Gaelic, as a specimen of the harmony of Ossian's versification, and, at the same time, as an example of a new mode of spelling that language, which he wished to introduce. It consists of four hundred and twenty-three lines. We have also, through the hands of Mr Macpherson, Malvina's Dream, of fifty-seven lines, a portion of the Poem of Carrickthura, and a few other fragments. Besides these, I know of no other of the poems, translated by Mr Macpherson, that have been given to

the public, in the original, by himself. But I would congratulate the lovers of Celtic literature, on the prospect that is now afforded of the publication of the entire originals, as left by Mr Macpherson, in the hands of the late John Mackenzie, Esq. of the Temple, London.* By a printed notice, dated Edinburgh, 1st February, 1806, and signed John Sinclair, it is intimated, that these are now to be published, under the auspices of a Committee of the Highland Society of London, consisting of Sir John Sinclair himself, Sir John Macpherson, Sir John Macgregor Murand others well qualified for this office.

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* These originals, it is understood, are all in a modern hand, transcribed by Mr Macpherson himself, or by his amanuensis. No ancient manuscripts appear, though it is certain that he had the use of some which he never returned, particularly from the Clanranald family. It is not improbable, that, with that caprice which has been ascribed to him, he might have destroyed, as he copied them; for to copy and arrange them was necessary, previous to his translating them.

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