Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

POEMS OF OSSIAN. ] 29
plKhments are very conliderable, but other men,
iuch as Clark and Kennedy., whofe il:iuies anci [:.,bits
of life were remote froiTi the cultivation of poetry,
who have either never written on ai^y oMci occa-
fion, or whofe writings give no token of poetical
genius or of pov/ers of compofition, produce to the
world poetry which, in fublimity and tcndeinefs,
will, it is believed, be admitted to be at leaft equal
to the compofitions of the beft modern poets, and
but little inferior to the moil admired among the an-
cient. Setting afide all the credit due to perJons of
unimpeached and refpeftable charaftens, may it not
be afked, how impofture and forgery Ihculd become
?nuscs to fuch men. lliould inlpire them with the
fervour, the pathos, and the imagery corjli^ir^d in
the compofitions which they iiave thub ^iven to the
world ?
Ill addition to the evidence arifing from the MSS.
or recited poems collefted by others, the Committee
thinks it may afford fome fatisfa£lion to the Society^
to lay before it, what they conceive to be.
Evidence, arifmg from a particular exnmir.ation
of the original (as it is termed), left by JMa.: phc. on
himfell\, compared with his tranila-ion, fornierly pi h-
lifhed in the * Specimen of the iprended Trariila 'vn
of Oilian's Poems,' which the Committee has iLen».
I tioiied