Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 1

XXXVl INTRODUCTION.
rliytlim, and a style of their own which is altogether
lost iu his English translation. But what concerns me
is the poj^ular belief, and it seems to be this — " Mac-
Pherson must have been a very dishonest person when
he allowed himself to pass as the author of Ossian's
poems." So said a lady, one of my earliest friends,
whose age has not impaired her memory, and so say
those who are best informed, and understand the
language.
The illiterate seem to have no opinion on the sub-
ject. So far as I could ascertain, few had heard of the
controversy, but they had all heard scraps of poems
and stories about the Finne, all their lives ; and they
are content to believe that " Ossian, the last of the
Finne," composed the poems, wrote them, and burned
his book in a pet, when he was old and blind, because
St. Patrick, or St. Paul, or some other saint, would
not believe his wonderful stories."
Those who would study " the controversy," will
find plenty of discussion ; but the report of the High-
land Society appears to settle the question on evidence.
I cannot do better than quote from Johnson's Poets the
opinion of a great author, who was a great translator,
who, in speaking of his own work, says : —
" What must the world think . . . After such a judgment
passed by so great a critick, the world who decides so often, and
who examines so seldom ; the world who, even in matters of litera-
ture, is almost always the slave of authority ? Who will suspect
that so much learning should mistake, that so much accuracy
should be misled, or that so much candour should be biassed ?
. . . . I think that no translation ought to be the ground of
criticism, because no man ought to be condemned upon another
man's explanation of his meaning " (Postscript to
the Odyssey, Pope's Homer, Johnson's Poets, pp. 279, 280).
And to that quotation let me add this manuscript