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

tiS LETTERS TO MR. MACKENZIE, \Ìc,
3. From the Rev. Dr. Carlyle, to Wm M'DonaLD,
Es(i. Secretary to the Highland Society, dated MusseU
burgh, 9th Janaary 1802.
Dear Sir,
An accident has brought to my remem-
brance an engagement I made to vou many months agcf,
which I now shall endeavour to fulfil. The subject may
not be important, but the age of the witness admonishes
him to give his evidence without loss of time.
On the 2d day of October 1759, (I happen to know the
date exactly); I came from the neighbourhood cf DuTnfrics
to Moffat in the morning, and finding John Home, the
author of Douglas, there, I resolved to stay all day with
him. In the course of our conversation,- he told me that
he had at last found what he had been long wishing for,
a person who could make him acquainted with ancient
Highland poetry, of which he had heard so much. This
was James Macpherson, who was then tutor to Mr Gra-
ham of Balgowan, whom he had, with much solicitation
and difficulty, prevailed with to translate some specimens
of that poetry which he had by heart, but which, he said,
he could not ào justice to in an English translation. Mr
Home had been highly delighted with them ; and wlien he
showed them to me, I was perfectly astonished at the poe-
tical genius displayed in them. We agreed that it was a
precious discovery, and that as soon as possible it should
be published to the world. Mr Home carried the manu-
script with him "soon after to Edinburgh ; and having
shown it to Dr Blair, and other good judges, they were
so much pleased that they encouraged Mr Macpherson to'
publish them without delay, which he did early in the
year 1760, with the title of Fragments of Ancitnt Poetry
collected in the Highkmds^