Ossian Collection > Genuine remains of Ossian

36 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION.
It appears that, prior to 1780, one Duncan Kennedy, a
schoolmaster in Argyle, had made that collection of Gaelic
poems alluded to in one of Dr Smith's letters to Mr Mac-
kenzie. It was afterwards purchased by the Highland
Society of Scotland. About this time, Dr Graham wrote
to him, calling his attention to the passage concerning him
in Smith's letter, and stating his suspicions that the charge
was well founded, and that if such was the case, it was
highly proper, and more honourable to himself, to make a
fair acknowledgment. Kennedy returned a long letter of
fourteen folio pages, in which he says, '■'■Want oftimevfWl
not at present permit me to answer your long and polite
letter, further than to glance over it, and to reply to the
few queries you have put to me." He then said, that if the
Doctor would send him his copy of the " Sean Dana,"* he
would return it in a fortnight with the parts composed by
Ossian, Orran, &c., those by Dr Smith, and his own, dis-
tinctly pointed out. He claimed a sixth or a seventh of the
MSS. he had sold to the Society, most of which additions
Dr Smith had never seen, having been composed in 1785.
time had applied to his friends in other parts, to assist him with as many of
these poems as they could procure ; among others he accosted a co-presbyter
of mine, (a particular acquaintance of Mr Ma«pherson's,) who, knowing that
a man of distinguished celebrity in that way had resided in my congregation,
he requested the favour of me to have an interview with him, and to take
down in writing one or two of these poems from his lips ; which I did, but
cannot recollect at this distance of time the name of the poems, though I
well remember they were lengthy, and irksome to me to write, as it is diffi-
cult to spell the Gaelic, Celtic, or Irish language, on account of the many
mute or quiescent letters contained almost in every word. As to the authen-
ticity of the poems of Ossian, and as to their being his production, I have no
more doubts on that head than I have of the compositions of Horace or
Virgil, to be the works of those celebrated authors ; and if, in my opinion,
any person, about two hundred years ago, dared to call in question these
poems, he would be branded in the Highlands with the epithets of an idiot
or fool." " Well do I remember the time when I myself lent a willing ear
to stories related of Fingal, Oscar, Ossian, and other heroes of the Highland
Bard. — Upon the whole I cannot therefore forbear calling that man a proud
sceptic, and totally unacquainted with the history of the Highlanders, and
the customs and usages anciently prevailing amongst them, who can once
doubt in his mind these poems to be the composition of Ossian." — Sir John
Sinclair's " Account of the Highland Society of London," p. 74.
* i. e. " Old Poems," the title of Dr Smith's Gaelic Collection.