Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

vi PREFACE.
lie brought out the Ossianic poems at the age of
twenty-five, he did little in the sixty years of
his life that would entitle him to permanent
remembrance. This work of his youth was, as
he declared, translated from Gaelic fragments
found in the Scottish Highlands. By its
wonderful success, and its no less wonderful
influence on literatm^e, both in England and
on the Continent, it gave him, in his own day, a
world-wide reputation. Literary fashions have
suffered many changes in the century that has
passed since his death, and Macpherson's repu-
tation no longer exists ; but his work retains
an historical interest of a curious and unique
character. It is strange evidence of the insta-
bility of literary fame that poems which, three
generations ago, were everywhere in vogue and
everywhere imitated — which appealed to the
feelings of all the cultured classes in Europe,
and excited the enthusiasm even of a Goethe, a
Byron, and a Napoleon — should now be almost
forgotten.
The origin, reception, and extraordinary effect