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

ANSWERS. 177
iTious for a long time, for the recitation and history of such
poems.
To 1th and folloxving ^erìes. That he saw many MSS.
in the old Gaelic character with Mr. Macpherson, contain-
ing some of the poems translated, which MSS. they found
difficult to read : That he heard of such being in the coun-
try, and given him : Is of opinion, that Mr. Donald Mac-
Queen, minister of Trotterness, Skye, a good Gaelic scho-
lar, gave some of them : How old the MSS. were cannot
say ; but from the character and spelling seemed very an-
cient.
General Observatiom hy Capt. Morison on the foregoing
Subject.
— Was intimately acquainted with Mr. James Macpher-
son's abilities and knowledge of the Gaelic language : Admits
he had much merit, in collecting, and arranging, and trans-
slating ; but that he was no great poet, nor thoroughly con-
versant in Gaelic literature ; So far from composing such
poems as were translated, that he assisted him often in un-
derstanding some words, and suggested some improvements :
That he could as well compose the Prophecies of Isaiah, or
create the Island of Skye, as compose a Poem like one of
Ossian's : That there are many other such poems, which
Mr. Macpherson did not collect, and collected some which
he did not translate ; but made his choice with proper
taste : That the Address to the Sun in the Poem of Car-
thon, wanted two lines in the original, wliich neither Mr.
Macpherson, nor any body else, could supply, nav supply
any thing like them.
N