J. F. Campbell Collection > Dàn an Deirg agus Tiomna Ghuill (Dargo and Gaul)

an essential difference from the authenticated ballads,
whicli mainly consist of direct narrative and simple
descriptions, and liave very few similes ; and that all the
above-mentioned characteristics of the English Ossian
do occur iu known productions of Macpherson, and
notably in the Highlander, a poem written a few years
before the publication of Fingal.
4thly. That much of the mythology in his book is
not Gaelic, but Norse ; e.g., the myth of Loda or Odin,
of which the story of Cruth-Loduinn, in Carricthura, is
a well-known instance. To this is added the fact that
one of his earlier pieces is professedly a translation from
the Norse, aud is highly ^' Ossianic " ìn style.
Lastly. That (putting all these facts together) the
probable conclusion is that Macpherson did really collect
a mass of genuine materials, arranged them, and added
matter of his own ; that he then published a paraphrase,
which he called a " translation," and that either before
or after he made the said translation, he concocted a
Gaelic equivalent, of which some lines are very likely
genuine, but of which no one connected passage can be
found in any authenticated Gaelic ballad.
To these objections the following facts are asserted by
way of reply : —
1. A comparison of the Ossianic ballads with Mac-
pherson's Ossian suggests the conclusion that his was
the original, and these were copies and amplifications of