Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

The attestations of several GENTLEMEN in
THE HIGHLANDS and WESTERN ISLANDS of
SCOTLAND, IN TESTIMONY of the POEMS
PUBLISHED BY Mr. JAMES MACPHERSON, being
A TRANSLATION of genuine HIGHLAND
POEMS,
THESE Attestations were collefted by Dr. Hugh Blair, one of the Minifters
of the High Church, and Profeflbr of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the Univerfity of
Edinburgh.
AS the Degree of Antiquity belonging to the Poems of
OJfuin, appeared to be a Point which might bear
Difpute, I endeavoured, from internal Evidence, to
fhew that thefe Poems mufl be referred to a very remote Period,
w^ithout pretending to afcertain precifely the Date of their Com-
polltion. I had not the leafl Sufpicion, when the Differtation
on the Poems of OJjian was firft publifhed, that there was any
Occafion for fupporting their Authenticity, as genuine Produc-
tions of the Highlands of Scotlmid, as Tranflations from the
Galic Language, not Forgeries of a fuppofed Tranflator. In
Scotland, their Authenticity was never called in Queftion. I
myfelf ■ had particular Reafons to be fully fitisfied concerning it.
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