Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

6 REPORT ON TH£
nary courfe of human affairs, that it requires the
ftrongeft reafons to make us believe it. My prefent
purpofe therefore is, to apply to you, in the name
of all the men of letters of this, and I may fay of
all other countries, to eflablifh this capital point, and
to give us proofs that thefe poems are, I do not fay
io antient as the age of Severus, but that they were
iiot forged within thefe five years by James Mac-
pherfon. Thefe proofs mud not be arguments, but
teftimonies : Peoples ears are fortified againft the
former ; the latter may yet find their way, before
the poems are configned to total oblivion. Now
the teftimonies may, in my opinion, be of two
kinds. Macpherfon pretends that there is an an-
cient manufcript of part of Fingal in the family I
think of Clanronald. Get that faci afcertained by
more than one perfon of credit ; let thefe perfons
be acquainted with the Gaelic ; let them compare
the original and the translation ; and let them tef-
tify the fidelity of the latter.
But the chief point in which it will be neceffary
lor you to exert yourfelf will be, to get pofitive tefli-
inony from many different hands, that fuch poems
are vulgarly recited in the Highlands, and have
there long been the entertainment of the people.
This teftimony mufl be as particular as it is pofitive.
It will not be fufficient that a Highland gentleman
or clergyman fay or write to you that he has heard
fuch poems : nobody queflions that there are tradi-
tional poems in that part of the country, where the
flames of Oflian and Fingal, and Ofcar and Gaul,
3 are