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

LETTERS TO MR. MACKENZIE, \3c. 61
Eion, to listen to advice : and when unjust censures were
thrown out against him, obstinate in his purpose of disre-
garding and contemning them, without the least concern of
giving any satisfaction to those who opj)Osed or cavilled cit
him.
Scepticism has indeed been entertained by many, how
far his work, supposing it to be no imposture on the Mhole,
could be relied upon as an accurate and faithful translation
of his Gaelic originals. That in some of the longer works,
he may have combined and brought together some pieces
which he found scattered and broken, and that, in compar-
ing the different copies which he frequently found of thq
same poem", either in manuscript or by rehearsal, he se-
lected from them all such as he thought the best readings,
I make no doubt, nor did he himself seem to disavow it.
I also think it probable that he may have left out some
rudenesses and extravagancies which he might occasionally
find in the old Gaelic songs. But after all the enquiries I
have been at pains to make, I can find no ground to su-»
spect that his deviations from the original text were at all
considerable, or his interpolations any more than what
were simply necessary to connect together pieces cf ont
whole which, he found disjointed : That his work, as it
stands, exhibits a genuine authentic view of ancie;-;t Gaelic
poetry, 1 am as firmly persuaded, as I can be of any thing.
It will, however, be a great salisfaciion to the learned
world, if that publication shall be completed, which Mr
Macpherson h^d begun, of the whole Gaelic originals in
their native state on one page, and a literal Latiri translation
on the opposite page. The idea which he once entertain-
ed, and of which he showed me a specimen, of printing
the Gaelic in Greek characters, (to avoid the disputes
about Gaelic orthography), I indeed strongly reprobated,
as what would carry to the world a strange affected appear-