As to his admissions that he himself was the author, be cause he asserted, that a translator who could not equal his original was not fit to be his translator ; though we admit that this assertion should be qualified, we must at the same time admit that it is founded in reason and experience. Mr. Macpherson had the genius of Ossian. His loftiness and independence he preserved in almost every line. . But we would ask the admirers of Pope's translation of Homer, if Pope could have been fit for his undertaking, if he had not had a poetic spirit ; and this will apply to Madame Dacier, Cowper, Macpherson, and every one who ever tried to turn Homer to English. Nor do we suppose that Dryden, who translated Virgil, would be accused of im posture, though he should have made the same concession as Mr. Macpherson.
Had, therefore, Mr. Laing, whose historical talen,ts rank him among the first of Scottish historians, not been blind ed by prejudice, or something else, he would not, with all his forensic acumen, .have construed Mr. Macpherson's consistent defence into an admission that he was the author of the poems which he ascribed to Ossian.
We regret that our limits will not allow us to enter fully into the subject. We must, therefore, now give the outline of the evidence for and against the authenticity of these celebrated poems ; and this evidence we must, ac cording to the nature of the case, divide into the external and internal. The last has never yet been properly before the public. • First, then, as to the external evidence we know nothing more complete depending on human testimony. Indeed, it is so complete to every candid person, that we feel some shame in almost reminding our readers of its nature. When we find a crowd of men, of all sentiments, and of different languages, without any visible interest but the love of truth, or any ostensible design but justice to a long unknown genius, concur in one sentiment, the opposite evidence must preponderate, indeed, before we relinquish positive facts for negative assertions.
The competency of Dr. Johnson, Laing, O'Halloran, and others, must be admitted as to the evidence of tes timony. Now, a priori, we ask, is the bare unbelief of these men, and perhaps a few more, to be put in com petition with the positive belief of Dr. Blair, Dr. Fer guson, Dr. Carlyle, Mr. Home, Mr. Henry Mackenzie, a most competent judge, Lord Elibank, Principal Robert son, and even Mr. Hume, who only wanted testimony, which was given, and which satisfied him ? Dr. Ferguson and Mr. Mackenzie were Gaelic scholars. But though they were, is it possible for any human being, who knew or knows sterling unimpeachable integrity, to suppose that, against honest conviction, they would attest a lie ? But far ther, is it possible to believe, without almost a miracle of im posture, that such bodies as the Highland Societies of Lon don and Scotland, composed of English, Irish, Scots and Caledonians, Germans, Danes, and French, could, during a period of sixty years, have lent their aid to a daring un precedented adventurer, and to the present hour persist in their delusion ? Is the unbelief of a few individuals of questionable motives, or no motives at all, to be weighed against such external evidence ? If these learned and honourable bodies had made no in quiry to procure satisfaction respecting the credit due to these poems, or to Mr. Macpherson, there might be some
room for discussion; but whoever reads the report of the Highland Society of Scotland, and the edition of Ossian's Poems by the Highland Society of London, with the ad mirable dissertation by Sir John Sinclair accompanying that edition, will at once see that they were most anxious to afford all the evidence in their power, evidence which completely satisfied themselves, and ought, in reason, to satisfy others.
Here we may remark, that Cesarotti, and all other foreigners, wonder how the question, as to the authen ticity of these poems, should ever have been agitated. They had no common feeling with Caledonians. They judged of the poems themselves as presented in a hurried translation. They saw every mark of antiquity and origi nality, such as no modern poet ever produced. Dante, Pet•arch, Camoens, Voltaire, and many others, were be fore them, and, in comparison, fell to nothing. They saw that, without a new and unaccountable phenomenon in human nature, it was utterly impossible that Mr. Mac pherson could, in so short a time, have produced poems, in all their bearings so unlike every other modern com position. See Cesarotti's Dis.s. Oss. vol. iii. See also Baron Edmund de Harold's Poems, ed. 1787, Dusseldorf.
Though we might here enlarge, our limits will not per mit. We must, therefore, refer our readers to Cesarotti, and Baron de Harold, who considered the subject, with all due attention and impartiality, and have decided in favour of Ossian's authenticity ; and so did Mr. Hill, an Englishman, who seems to have travelled principally for the purpose of obtaining satisfaction on the subject. Both he and Cesarotti have fallen into great blunders, arising from their ignorance of the language of Caledonia. We see, then, that notwithstanding the unbelief of Dr. John son, who, it is admitted, was not in all respects a compe tent judge, as he betrays gross ignorance of the language and history of Caledonia, all foreigners, to the present hour, received the poems of Ossian as authentic compo sitions of the age to which they are ascribed.