Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

36 JAMES MACPHERSON.
There are no anecdotes reported of Macpher-
son's boyhood to derive their interest from his
subsequent celebrity, nor is there any account of
his early education, except that it began at home ;
from which it may be inferred that his parents,
although in a poor position, possessed a fair
measure of instruction. Even in the wildest
part of the Highlands this would scarcely serve
to mark them off from their neighbours of the
same class. For, thanks to the efforts of the
Roman Church in an earlier century, and more
particularly to the excellent system of Protestant
parochial schools established soon after the Re-
volution, the elements of education were at
that time more widely diffused in Scotland than
in any other part of the British Isles. When
he could learn no more from his parents, young
Macpherson was sent to the parochial school.
There he gave so much evidence of talent that
his father, contrary, it is said, to his original
intention, determined to bring him up to a
learned profession. The Highland farmer's idea
of a learned profession did not soar beyond
the Church : to make his son a minister would
make him a scholar, if not a gentleman ; and
accordingly it was with a view to entry into