Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

CHAPTER II.
The Macphersons. — Birth. — Ruthven, and the
Rising of '45. — Education at Aberdeen.—
Return to Ruthven as Schoolmaster. —
Early Poetry.
The biography of any man fitly begins with the
mention of his ancestors. To know something
of the race of which he came not only gratifies
a reasonable curiosity ; but it helps or ought to
help us in forming a right estimate of what he
was in himself ; and this is all the more needful
if any uncertainty attaches to his doings. His
race, it may be said, is the long shadowy prelude
to the drama of his individual life ; and in the
course of nature his part is, in some measure at
least, determined for him there before he enters.
As we watch him, mostly an ill-defined figure,
strut his little hour upon the stage, and in the
twilight of the past do what we can to follow
him through the scenes of his history, it may
be useful to remember the character of the
prelude ; it may sometimes assist a just under-
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