Ossian Collection > Authenticity of the poems of Ossian

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impostor would have to overcome would be to pourtray,
iu a lively, vigorous, easy style, the thoughts, actions,
and manners of an unknown period, without betraying
any marks of a difterent age, nation, or state of society.
It often requires some genius to depict, in the most
proper and vivid colours, even what we have ourselves
seen or felt ; and the greatest genius can only combine
and arrange, he cannot create a single new, simple
idea. Hence it is almost impossible for any man to
give a description of an unknown state of society,
which shall contain much that is original, and, at the
same time, vivid and true to nature. There must
likewise be a constant watch against inserting any-
thing that would detect him. This must effectually
cramp both the thought and the style. Now it is a
fact, that the style of Ossian is most simple and
unembarrassed, to a degree seldom or never surpassed.
His words seem to flow from him without any effort
Avhatever, while the thoughts are often original and
uncommon, and at the same time natural. Such
poems, tlicrefore, never were, and never shall be com-
2)osed by one who describes an unknown period, and
is perpetually shackled by the dread of committing
himself, either by thought or expression."
Had M'Pherson been the author of the Gaelic, it
was at least to be expected of him that he would
understand its meaning ; whereas the translation con-
tains innumerable proofs that he did not. Thus for
"Bhami dluth
Ri m' cliairdcan 'au carraid nan sleagli,"
he has
" I was swift with my friends in figbt."
In this case he mistakes the meaning of the word
dluth (close) for sioift, a sense in which it is only used
locally, and even then incorrectly. Having done this,
he had to jiut a wrong interpretation on ?v', which
means to. Instead, then, of sicift ivith, it should be
close to — thus,
" I was dose to my friends in tlic battles of spears."
Again, for
'"S cosmliuil ri Gorm-meall am fnaim,
Mu'n eiricli gaillean a' chuain ard,"
he has
"Such is the noise of Gormal, before the
White tops of my waves arise."
Here he mistakes the words mu and an contracted