Ossian Collection > Ossianic controversy

OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY.
|||fl<jÈ&EFORE we approach the merits of this controversy, we
(r t/p y, must briefly allude to its origin, and the circumstances
which at first roused suspicion in the minds of literary
men regarding the authenticity and genuineness of the
Ossianic poems.
About the middle of the last century John Home, the
author of the once-celebrated tragedy of " Douglas," had his
attention drawn to the subject of Gaelic poetry, through an
article in the Scots Magazine, written by a man named Jerome
Stone, a native of the parish of Scoonie, Fifeshire, and rector of
an academy at Dunkeld. Mr Home conferrecl with Professor
Ferguson, of the Edinburgh University, on the subject of Gaelic
poetry, and questioned him as to the truth of Stone's statements
regarding its excellence. Professor Ferguson confirmed the
opinion of Mr Stone, regarding the merits of those hitherto
uncollected stores of intellectual wealth, treasured up in the
poetical compositions possessed by the Highlanders of Scotland.
James Macpherson, a native of Badenoch, was offìciating as
tutor to the. family of Mr Graham, younger of Balgowan, in the
year 1759. In the summer of that year Mr Home happened
to be at Moffat, where he met Macpherson. In the course of
conversation he discovered that Macpherson was in possession