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

POEMS OF OSSIAN. 25
were composed. Several of thefe performances are
to be met with, which, for fublimity of fentiment,
nervoufnefs of expreffion, and high fpirited meta-
phor, are hardly to be equalled among the chief
productions of the mod cultivated nations. Others
of them breathe fuch tendernefs and fimplicity, as
mult be affecting to every mind that is in the leaib
tinctured with the fofter paffions of pity and huma-
nity. Of this kind is the poem of which I here fend
you a translation. Your learned readers will eafily
difcover the conformity there is betwixt the tale up-
on which it is built, and the (lory of Bellerophon,
as related by Homer ; while it will be no fmall gra-
tification to the curiofity of fome, to fee the differ-
ent manner in which a fubject of the fame nature is
handled by the great father of poetry and a High-
land bard. It is hoped the uncommon turn of fe-
veral expreflions, and the feeming extravagance
there is in fome of the comparifpns I have, preferved
in the tranflatioiia will give no offence to fuch per-
fons as can form a juft notion of thofe compofitions,
which are the productions of fimple and unaffifted
, in which energy is always more fought after
than neatnefs, and the ftri£tnefs of connexion lefs
adverted to than the defign of moving the paffions
and affecting the heart. I am, &c»
About the fame time Mr Pope, minifler of Reay
in Caithnefs, well known for his abilities as a fcho-
lar, and his great' knowledge of the Gaelic language,
had thoughts of making a collection of the ancient
poetry