J. F. Campbell Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

POEMS Ol- OS31AN.
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general, and indeed the only pradlicable mode of
collecling ancient Highland poetry, let the fkill and
induftry of the colleclor be what they may.
On examining into the poems, or fragments of
poems, which the Committee lias procured, and
which indeed are common jn the Highlands, it has
been uniformly found, that many ditferent edition^
or copies (if that phrafe may be allowed to fuit re-
citadon as well as writing) of poems, bearing the
fame, or nearly the fame title, exift and are preferr-
ed, whether in memory or in manufcript ; by a care-
ful and well informed colledion of which, the moft
perfecl piece may be found. This is the common
and legitimate method of obtaining what it is fair to
denominate authentic copies of all genuine tradition-
ary poetry, and muil neceflarily be followed with
regard to compofitions which had never been fixed
by publication, but floated either in various and often
incorred written copies, or much more frequently
in the oral recitadon of fenachies or bards, ol* of
ftill more illiterate perfons, who repeated, for the
amufement of others, what they had liftened to
merely ^^r their own. The Committee has receiv-
ed feveral copies of various poems, of more or iefs
merit, w^hich, though known and recited under fi-
milar titles, differ confiderably in detail, in words,
lines or paflages, probably as the memoiy of the re-
citer was more or Iefs accurate, oi* fometimes as his
tinderflanding of the ancient language, or his com-
prehenfion of the figures or imagery it conveyed^
was more or Iefs perfeti:.
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