Ossian Collection > Original collection of the poems of Ossian, Orrann, Ulin, and other bards, who flourished in the same age

PREFACE. Ixx?
translation of them, by what means did the High-
landers become possessed of the originals? The
style and manner of the poems is such as could
have entered into no human head these thousand
years past. But should we even admit that Mr.
M'Pherson used some unwarrantable freedoms,
it will no more invalidate the authenticity of these
poems, than the ignorance or incandour of a trans-
lator would invalidate the authenticity of any other
ancient work. This argument will not apply to Dr.
Smith and others, who published the originals
along with the translations.
That these poems are the work of Ossian is clear
from their internal evidence. His own history is
almost uniformly interwoven with that of theheroes
and great events which he celebrates. Had these
poems been composed during the fifteenth century,
what could have induced to transfer his fame to
another? The inhabitants of the Highlands and
islands of Scotland, amounting to upwards of half
a million of people, unanimously ascribe these
-poems to Ossian. Can the utmost pitch of human
credulity imagine that half a million of people
would be unanimous in maintaining a falsehood,
or that any consideration, short of truth, could in-
duce them to ascribe the most valuable, the most
exalted, and the most esteemed, of their ancient
poetry, to a mere non-entity? More than a thou-
sand places in the Highlands take their names
from Fingal's heroes (Cothron vet Feinne), tho