Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. xix
confess, difficult. This, however, is the ingenuous
manner in which they treat it.
" The Comiiiitlee is possessed of no docnments, to
shew how much of his collection Mr. Macphersonob-
tained in the form in which he has given it to the
world. The poems and fragments of poems which
the Committee has been able to procure, contain, as
will appear from the article in the Appendix (No.
15.) already mentioned, often the substance, and
sometimes almost the literal expression, (the ipsis-
sima verba) of passages given by Mr. Macpherson,
in the poems of which he has published the transla-
tions. But the Committee has not been able to ob-
tain any oue poem the same in title or tenor with the
poems published by him. It is inclined to believe,
that he was in use to supply chasms, and to give con-
nexion, by inserting passages which he did not find,
and to add what he conceived to be dignity and deli-
cacy to the original composition, by striking out pas-
sages, by softening incidents, by refining the language,
in short, by changing what he considered as too simple
or too rude for a modern ear, and elevating what, in
his opinion, was below the standard of good poetry.
To what degree, however, he exercised these liber-
ties, it is impossible for the Committee to determine.
The advantages he possessed, which the Committee
began its inquiries too late to enjoy, of collecting
from the oral recitation of a number of persons, now
no more, a very great number of the same poems on
the same subjects, and then collating those different
copies, or editions, if they may be so called, reject-
ing what was spurious or corrupted in one copy, and
adopting from another something more genuine and
excellent in its place, aflForded him an opportunity of
putting together what might fairly enough be called
an original whole, of much more beauty, and with
much fewer blemishes, than the Committee believe it
now possible for any person, or combination of per-
sons, to obtain." P. 152 — 3.
Some Scotch critics, who should not be ignorant of
the strong-holds and fastnesses of the advocates for
the authenticity of these Poems, appear so convinced