Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

XX A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE,
of their insufficiency, that they pronounce the ques-
tion put to rest for ever. But we greatly distrust
that any literary question, possessing a single inch of
debatable ground to stand upon, will be suffered to
eujoy much rest in an age like the present. There
are as many minds as men, and of wranglers there is
no end. Behold another and " another yet," and in
our imagination, he —
" bears a glass.
Which shews us many more."
The first of these is Mr. Laing, who has recently
published " The Poems of Ossian, &c. containing the
Poetical Works of James Macpherson, Esq. in Prose
and Rhyme : with Notes and Illustrations. In 2 vols.
8vo. Edinburgh, 1805." In these " Notes and Illus-
trations," we foresee, that Ossian is likely to share
the fate of Shakspeare : that is, ultimately to be load-
ed and oppressed by heavy commentators until his
immortal spirit groan beneath vast heaps of perisha-
ble matter. The object of Mr. Laing's commentary,
after having elsewhere* endeavoured to shew that
the Poems are spurious, and of no historical authority,
" is," says he, " not merely to exhibit parallel pas-
sages, much less instances of a fortuitous resemblance
of ideas, but to produce the precise origiuals from
which the similes and images are indisputably deriv-
ed." t And these he pretends to find in Holy Writ,
and in the classical poets, both of ancient and modern
times. Mr. Laing, however, is one of those detectors
of plagiarisms and discoverers of coincidences, whose
exquisite penetration and acuteness can find any thing
any where. Dr. Johnson, who was shut a^^ainst con-
viction with respect to Ossian, even when he affected
to seek the truth in the heart of the Hebrides, may
yet be made useful to the Ossianites in canvassing
the merits of this redoubted stickler on the side of
* In his Critical and Historical Dissertation on the
Antiquity of Ossian's Poems,
t Pref. p. v.