Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

xxxiv INTRODUCTION.
harmonious versification. The original of this
piece suffered even in the hands of Mr. Macpher-
son, though he has shewn himself inferior to no
translator. The copy or edition which he had of
this poem is very different from mine ; I imagine
it will, in that respect, be agreeable to Mr. Percy.
The gentleman who gave it me copied it from an
old MS. which Mr Macpherson had no access to
before his ' Fingal ' came abroad."
The Report from which these extracts are taken
is not the only record of enquiries regarding the
existence of ancient Gaelic poetry. In the Gentle-
maiis Magazine for 1782-3 appear the results of an
independent research by Mr. Thomas Hill. This
gentleman, though unacquainted with the Gaelic
language, succeeded in collecting from oral tradi-
tion and otherwise in the Highlands many
traditional compositions of the greatest beauty.
*>Such testimony, ancient and modern, may be left
to make its own answer to the dogmatic assertions
of Highland barbarism fulminated by Dr. Johnson.
And since many of the most beautiful passages in
Macpherson's translation are among those specifi-
cally vouched for as genuine, the value of Mr.
Laing's assurance that he had discovered the
source of " every image," etc., needs no further
comment.
After the production of so great a mass of