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

•74 LETTERS TO MR. MACKENZIE,
became a student in philosophy, when, in the year 17(3S
or 1161, I read Mr Macpherson's translation, with which,
beautiful a^ it is, I was by no means so much charmed as
I had been with the oral recitation of such as I had heard
of the poems in the original language. The ejegance of
the modern dress did not therefore, in my opinion, com-
pensate for the loss of the venerable and ancient garb. In
^reading the translation, I recognized a number of poems,
episodes, and passages, which were familiar to me. Some
of the poems, and partfj of poems, were, however, new
to me ; and others which I knew, and supposed to have
considerable merit, I desiderated. Of a number of these
last, I procured several editions some years afterwards ;
but did not trouble myself or others with collecting those
which had been already translated, as it was then expected
that Mr Macpher^on himself would soon publish them.
When this however became doubtful, I remember to have
formed the design of collecting as many as I could of his
originals, which at th^t time would not l^e a few ; but
finding there was no encouragement to be expected for such
a w^ork, and that those which I had already collected
would not defray their own expence, nor have been ever
published had it not been for the liberal support and pa-
tronage of the Highland Society of London, I gave up the
pursuit of Gaelic poetry ; about which 1 became so care-
less, that I never took the troiible of transcribing or pre-
serving several pieces that had fallen into my possession.
Some I lost, some I gave away, and some still meet me in
the bosom of this or the other book. Had I had the second
sight to foresee that such things would one day be in re-
quest, I might have now had many. In the original
poems and translations which I had publi-^hed, I had occa-
sion to introduce several passages of Mr Macpherson's ori-
ginals into the notes ; for, without searching for them, I
had got considerable portions of several of those poemK