Dr. Johnson, and other writers on that side of the question, have dwelt too strongly. The prejudices of that distinguished scholar certainly operated upon this, as well as many other occasions, and his tour in Scotland did not tend to lessen them. He had no taste for the rude, wild, and naked scenery of the Western Isles, and the absence of written documents seemed to him convincing proof against the alleged antiquity of the lays of Ossian; and he refused to receive the testimony of those inhabitants who were most competent to give it, because he chose illiberally to fancy that they would prefer the credit of their country to truth. Yet I have been told, by a lady, now deceased, of high literary reputation, that the late Sir James Macdonald, elder brother of the Chief Baron, assured her, that he could repeat, when a lad, many of the poems translated by Macpherson in their original Erse. A similar assurance I received also myself from a surgeon in the navy, a native of the isle of Mull, who told me not only that he could repeat many of those poems, but that Macpherson had not selected, or perhaps met with, some of the finest of them; in particular one which is a dialogue between Ossian and a missionary, who was preaching the Christian religion in the Highlands, which he said was the noblest poem he had ever known.*

When I was in Scotland, about fourteen years since, I was in the boat of a highland fisherman, upon Loch

Possibly this may be the poem mentioned by Miss Owenson in her novel of "The Wild Irish Girl;" and the missionary prove to be St. Patrick. It must be owned that there is great weight in that lady's arguments to prove that Ossian was a native of Ireland, and that Morven is to be found in that country.

Lomond,

Lomond, who appeared so intelligent that I was induced to ask him some questions upon this subject. He told me that he could sing a great many of the songs of Ossian, but added, that they were old fashioned things, and he would sing me a modern Erse song upon the present Duke of Montrose's patriotism in being the means of restoring to them the ancient highland dress. He said that he had never heard that the poems of Ossian had been translated into English, and seemed much surprised that I should know any thing about them.

With respect to the internal evidence which these celebrated poems afford, neither party seem to have considered it with sufficient accuracy. Young persons are struck with the wild and romantic splendour of the imagery, with the bravery of the heroes, and the beauty of the women. Those of a more advanced age are tired with the perpetual recurrence of the same images: Bran bounding over the heath, the gray rock, the thin and shadowy forms of departed valour appearing in a cloud, and even the white arms and bosoms of female loveliness, are so little varied and so generally prominent, that neither the young nor the old are tempted to penetrate deeper than the language, to discover the real merits of the composition. If they did, a discrimination of character, a strength of colouring, even a variety of incident might be observed, which escape the notice of inattentive readers. In proof of this, let the affecting intercourse of Ossian and Malvina, of which there is no parallel in any ancient writer, be observed; let the nervous and original character of Oscar, and the striking circumstances of his

death

death, be considered. tween the generous Cairbar and his ferocious brother, and that between the two Irish warriors Foldath and Malthos, both in the field and council; the beautiful episode of Sulmalla; the awful introduction of the venerable and unconquered Fingal to the war (though that seems less original than most other parts of the poems), and the distinction between the characters of his sons, as well as of the manner of their deaths.

Add to these the contrast be

If these poems be impartially considered therefore, with no reference to the beauty or singularity of the language, surely it will hardly be supposed that the whole of them can be due to Macpherson's invention; or indeed, that he, or any well-educated man, could so totally unlearn all his classical acquirements, as to produce a work betraying so little, if any, imitation of those great exemplaria Græca, with which the mind of every scholar must be filled. Probably in this, as in most things, the truth may lie in, the middle. He found these songs volitantes per ora virum, defective and imperfect. He supplied those parts which were wanting, added, omitted, and filled up as he thought necessary, and has thus given a work to the world, of the merit of which no greater proof can be required, than that it has been translated into every modern language, and is admired and beautiful in them all.

* What reader of taste and feeling but must shudder when red-haired Olla raises the song of death on the distant heath!

ART.

ART. XXII. Literary Obituary.

Lately, at Tiverton, Devon, Mr. Martin Dunsford,
many years a respectable merchant there, and author
of the Historical Memoirs of Tiverton.

April 16. In Mansfield Street, æt. 73, Edward King,
Esq. F. R. and A. S. S. a celebrated antiquary.

April 17. Mr. Mark Supple, of considerable literary
talents, editor of various periodical publications.

To the Reader.

The pressure of Bibliographical communications,
with Indexes, &c. has prevented the usual quantity of
modern literature in the present Number, which shall
be made amends for in the next.

April 24, 1807.

GENERAL INDEX.

Age, present, gives encouragement to Biography, Effay on the proper objects