Ossian 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 OF OSSIAN. 15^
him zm opportunity of putting together what might
fairly enough be called an original whole, of much
more beauty, and with much fewer blemifhes, than
the Committee believes it noiv poffible for any per-
fon, or combination of perfons, to obtain.
The Committee thinks it difcovers fome difference
between the ftyle both of the original (one book of
which is given by Macpherfon) and tranflation of
Temora, and that of the tranflation of Fingal, and
of the fmall portion of the original of that poem,
which it received from his executors. There is more
the appearance of fimplicity and originality in the
latter than in the former. Perhaps when he puh-
lifhed Fingal, Mr Macpherfon, unknown as an au-
thor, and obfcure as a man, was more diffident,
more cautious, and more attentive, than when at a
fubfequent period he publiflied Temora, fluihed with
the applaufe of t!ie world, and diftinguifhed as a
man of talents, and an author of high and rifing
reputation. Whoever will examine the original
prefixed to fome of the editions of the 7th book of
Temora, and compare it with the tranfladon, will,
in the opinion of the Committee, difcover fome im-
perfei3:ions, fome modernisms, (if the expreffion may
be allowed) in the Gaelic, which do not occur in the
fpecimen of Fingal, given in the Appendix to this
Report ; and, in the Englifh, more of a loofe and
inflated exprefllon (which however v/as an error in-
to which Macpherfon was apt to fall), than is to be
found in his earlier tranflations. He had then at-
tained a height which, to any man, but particularly
L to