Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

A PRELIMIN'AKY DISCOURSE. 25
The opinion of the colour of his opposition,
whether it be that of truth or error, will de-
pend on the eye that contemplates it. Those
who delight to feast with Mr. Laing on the
limbs of a mangled poety will think the latter un-
answered ; while those* who continue to in-
dulge the animating thought, 'that Fingal liv-
ed, and that Ossian sung,' will entertain a dif-
ferent sentiment. After successfully combat-
ing several old positions,-]- Mr. M'Donald ter-
minates his discussion of the point at issue
with these words :
' He (Mr. Laing) declares, ' if a single poem
of Ossian in MS. of an older date than the
present century (1700,) be prociu-ed and lodg-
ed in a public Library, I (Laing) shall return
among the first to our national creed.'
' This is reducing the point at issue to a
narrow compass. Had the proposal been made
at the outset, it would have saved both him
and me a good deal of trouble : not that in re-
gai'd to ancient Gaelic manuscripts I could give
any more satisfactory account than has been
done in the course of this discourse. There
the reader will see, that though some of the
poems are confessedly prociu"ed from oral tra-
dition, yet several gentlemen of veracity attest
to have seen, among Macpherson's papers, se-
veral MSS. of a much older date th?n i\Ir.
• A professor in the University of Edinburgh, the ami-
able and learned Dr. Gregory, is on the side of the belit v.
ers in Ossian. His judgment is a tower of strength, See
the preface, p. vi, to xii. and p. HG, of his Comparative
View of the State and Faculties of Man wim those of the
Animal World.
t Such as the silence of Ossian in respect to religion ;
his omission of wohes and tx^ars, <kc. bee also in the
Literary Journal, .\ugust, 1804, a powerful encounter of
many of Mr. Laing's other arguments m his Dissertation
against the authenticity of these poems. His ignorance
of the Gaelic, and the consequent futility of his etymolo-
gical remarks, are there ably exposed.