Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

OF OSSIAN'S POEMS. 79
person, in other respects, that he has fre-
quently carried home, and committed to
writing, a favourite discourse which he has
heard, of half an hour in length, nearly
word for word. Indeed, this is done, and
may he done, every day. But, when a man
has his Homer or Virgil, his Pope and Shake-
speare, at hand, why should he exhaust the
powers of his mind, which may be other-
wise more advantageously employed, incom-
mittino- their verses to memorv? And who
thinks of getting the Psalms and Liturgy by
heart, when he has a copy of them, at every in-
stant, within his reach? But the most effectual
proof of the possibility of transmitting poems,
of very considerable extent, merely by oral
tradition, is, that we know, on the best
grounds, that this has been actually done.
The account, which -^lian gives us, of the
original transmission of the poetry of Ho-
mer, is altogether to the purpose of our pre-
sent argument:— " The ancients," he tells