Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 1

14^ APPENDU.
terfed to have been in the pofTeffion of fotne great ii'-
milics; that the molt valuable of thofe which remained,
were colledled by Mr. Macpherfon during his journey
througii that country ; that though the poems of Offi-
an, fo far as they were handed down by oral tradition,
were no doubt liable to be interpolated, and to have
tfceir parts disjoined and put out of their natural order,
yet by comparing together the different oral editions
of them (if we may ufe that phrafe) in different cor-
ners of the country, and by com.paring thefe alfo with
the manufcripts v.-hich he obtained, Mr. Macpherfou
had it in his power to afcertain, in a great meafure, the
genuine original, to rellore the parts to their proper
order, and to give the whole to the public in tliat de-
gree of correctnefs, in which it now appears.
I am alfo acquainted, that if inquiries had been made
fifty or threefcore years ago, many more particulars
concerning thefe poems might have been learned, and
many more living witneffes have been produced for at-
teiling their authenticity ; but that the manners of the
inhabitants of the Highland countries have of late un-
dergone a great change. Agriculture, trades, and mar
nufadtures, begin to take place of liunting, and the
Ihepherd's life. The introducftion of the bufy and la-
borious arts has confiderabiy abated that poetical en-
thufiafm which is better fuited to a vacant and indo-
lent ftate. The fondnefs of reciting their old poems
decays ; the cuftom of teaching them to their children
is fallen into defuetude; and few are now tq be found,
except old men, who can reljearfe from memory any
confidtrable parts of them.
For thefe particulars, concerning the ftate of the
Highlands and the tranfmiffion of Ofli.in s poems, I,
arn indebced to the reverend and very learned and in-
genious Mr. John Macpherfon, minifter of Slate, in
the Ifland of Sky ; and the reverend Mi-. Donald Mac-
queen, minifter of Kilmuir, in Sky ; Mr. Donald Mac-
leod, minifter of Glenelg, in Invernefs-lhire ; Mr-,
Ircwii Grant, miiuller of Duthcl, in rnvernefs-ftiue