J. F. Campbell Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

110 LECTURE III.
lie language in the early part of the sixteenth
century. In these earlier fragments the edi-
tor retained all the Irishisms introduced into
them during the course of centuries, and which
are as frequent in some of these as repeated in
the Highlands, as they are in Ireland. Thus
the poet is introduced as addressing St Patrick
under the name of " M'Alpin," or " the Son of
Alpin ;" although there is a manifest attempt
to conceal that the Irish saint is meant. These
addresses are obviously interpolations of the
Irish bardic school, in which so many of our
Scottish bards were trained ; but their intro-
duction by Macpherson was clear evidence of
the honesty displayed by him as an editor.
This earlier collection, on its appearance,
served but to whet the public appetite, and Mac-
pherson aided this effect, by saying that there
was an immense deal more of the same kind of
poetry throughout the Highlands, which might
be collected, but which, if not collected then,
would, from the rapid changes taking place
among the people, be lost for ever. The con-
sequence was, that money was contributed, and
Macpherson commissioned by an association of
gentlemen in Edinburgh, of which Dr Blair was
the leading member, to proceed without delay
with the work of collecting. If Macpherson, at