Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, &c > Volume 1

PREFACE. IX
Magazines; and in a Collection of Ori-
ginal Poetry, by Blacklock and other Scots
gentlemen, (Edinburgh I76O,) a series of
anonymous poems must be appropriated
to Macpherson. These poems, of which
some are highly descriptive, and others
again sentimental, are authenticated by
the repetition of the same expressions and
imagery in Ossian ; but at present, the
chief value of Macpherson s verses consists
in the evidence which they afford, that his
first, and most predominating ambition was
to become a heroic poet.
From this early bias, the fabrication of
the poems, ascribed to Ossian, may be dis-
tinctly explained. In the correspondence
just published by the Highland Society, Dr
Adam Ferguson tells us% that he had in-
* Report of the Committee of the Highland Society,
on the authenticity of Ossian. Appendix, p. 63. In
writing this preface I had not seen the report itself; but
I rested with Mr MackeRzie upoa the evidence con-