Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

6o JAMES MACPHERSON.
men had a great mass of Gaelic poetry stored up
in their memory, and they were fond of reciting
to any one who was willing to listen to them.
Macpherson spent some of his spare time in tran-
scribing a few fragments ; and we are told by
Eamsay^ that he did so with no other object
than to amuse himself. The statement is impor-
tant, and it is perfectly trustworthy. Ramsay
had a wide acquaintance ; he was blessed with
the habit of inquiry ; he had abundant oppor-
tunity of obtaining information from some of his
own contemporaries, who had come into personal
contact with Macpherson ; and one - at least of
these contemporaries was Macpherson's com-
panion at college, and afterwards his intimate
friend. Ramsay's estimate of Macpherson is in
general so calm, so dispassionate, and so well
supported by other and independent authorities,
that, on the face of it, there is no reason for
doubting the accuracy of any of his particular
assertions.
But the fact, and what it is more important to
establish, the precise nature and extent, of his
interest in Gaelic poetry at this period is proved
^ Op. cit.
2 j)r. Macleod, of Glasgow.