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

126
REPORT ON THE
Chaidh iadann dàril a chèilc
Na tre'aiu bu docair ag corag
Gach gaoth a meartach' an faoithreacfe
Buillean baobhaidh bfacach dobhaidh.,
Gu cuidreach cudromach beumnach
Blia na trein mar thuinn fa bhairich
Gan niaga le ftoirm ta' airt nuallain
Ar caraig chruaidh meadhon bàire/
(i>^ Avia)
"the Committee fets down thefe lines, forgetting,
in the feeling produced in itfelf, to how few, hoM'
very few, of the readers of this Report, they can
give any idea. But it is tempted to quote them,
with the purpofe of calling forth the teliimony of
thofe few by whom they will be underftood, that
the Committee, in its account of the original of this
poem, does not deceive, or at lead has no intention
to deceive, the Society or the public.
In Kennedy^scolledion, as wejl as in thofe fur-
niflied t he Committee by others, are feveral paiTages
nearly, and fometimes altogether the fame, with
Macphei-fon's tranfla tion ; but neither in Kennedy's
GoUeftion, nor in thofe of the others, does the poem
in which they occur always correfpond in its title^
ftory, or general tenor, with that in which the re-
fembling paflages are given by Macpherfon. Of
thefe, as far as they are found in the poem of Fin-
gal, Dr D, Smith has, at the defire of the Society,
formed a feledion, which will be found in the Ap-
pendix, No. 15. To this paper the Committee re-
quefts the particular attention of the Society. The
Dodor has, by the Committee's diredion, taken the
_^ ^ fame
fjylr^ J^a^h^ (pJhjfw^ hu/w^^u^
^<7wuf3<:ci.vA^t^a>i'£C .