Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

OF OSSIANS POEMS, 89
lies; and it occurs, also, in the manuscript
of the period of James IV. of which an ac-
count is given, by Dr Donald Smith, in the
Appendix to the Committee's Report. These
editions f differ slightly, as might have been
expected, from that which I had from Kerr,
by the addition, or omission, or transposi-
tion, of a few lines ; but the poem is the
same, and it is the same, in every material
respect, with that which fell into the hands
of Mr Macpherson.
I have to add, that Kerr did not deliver
this poem in any connection with a larger
work, as Mr Macpherson has given it in Fin-
gal, but as a detached independent piece. It
t Mr Laing ridicules the term " editions," when ap-
plied to poems which were never committed to writing,
or to the press. But he appears to mistake the sense in
which the term is applied. It is used, in this instance,
to' express the differences which necessarily arise, in re-
citation, from the greater or less accuracy, or the more
or less perfect recollection, of the persons who repeat
them from memory.