Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 51
system, so that it is altogether needless to fix
its origin a fictitious millennium before.
Since the first publication of these poems,
many insinuations have been made, and doubts
arisen, concerning their authenticity. Whether
these suspicions are suggested by prejudice, or
are only the effects of malice, I neither know
nor care. Those who have doubted my ve-
racity, have paid a compliment to my genius;
and were even the allegation true, my self-
denial might have atoned for my fault. With-
out vanity I say it, I think I could write
tolerable poetry; and I assure my antagonists,
that I should not translate what I could not
imitate.
As prejudice is the effect of ignorance, I
am not surprized at its being general. An age
that produces few marks of genius ought to
be sparing of admiration, The truth is, the
bulk of mankind have ever been led, by repu-
tation more than taste, in articles of literature.
If all the Romans who admired Virgil, un-
derstood his beauties, he would have scarce
deserved to have come down to us through so
many centuries. Unless genius were in fashion.
Homer himself might have written in vain.
He that wishes to come with weight, on the
superficial, must skim the surface, in their own
shallow way. W^ere my aim to gain the
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