Ossian Collection > Small tribute to the memory of Ossian

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and uninfluenced by a commendable spirit of emulation^
properly regulated and directed, the actions of men would
speedly dwindle into perfect insignificance, if not some--
thing worse, ?.nd exhibit nothing more engaging to a dis*
interested bystander than the Ufe of a brute.
Upon these principles, the philosophical accuracy of
which, will not, I trust, be successfully controverted,
what an unaccountable being, what a walking miracle,
what an inexplicable phenomenon in nature, was Mr James
Macpherson ! where shall we find a parallel to him in
any age or country, or how find it possible to account
for his conduct, if the poems of Ossian were his ? If they
were, then I challenge the whole human race to tell me
what could induce him to deny it. It could not be the
dread of persecution, for no poems since the days of
Homer were ever more universally admired ; and in re-
spect of sublimity and pathos, they were proved to be
superior even to Homer himself, by the most learned,
sagacious, and inlelligent judges. They were translated
into almost every European language, very soon after
their first appearance in an English dress ; and the critics
of different countries vied with each other in pointing
out their inimitable beauties, and resounding their praises
in the most energetic language. Ihe immortal pen of
Blair delineated their excellence in a masterly manner,
and many authors of character and respectability have
since given additional importance to the same side of the
question.
Shade of Macpherson ! couldst thou hear all this with-
out being moved, and by the exercise of an unaccountable
something which baffles men or angels to comprehend,
persist in denying that the poems were thine ? Tiiis .vas
an instance of self-denial unknown in the history of the
world ; and upon the supposition that the poems of Ossian
were his own production, it is wholly inexplicable. But
I have already proved, that it was physically impossible
they could be his ; yet, as many learned men were in-
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