WHEN Dr Blair, in 1763, wrote his differtation on the poems of Offian, he proposed to accompany it with certain documents in fupport of the authenticity of thefe poems. It appears that he had applyed to his celebrated friend, Mr David Hume, for his opinion as to what should be the nature of the evidence he should endeavour to obtain on that fubject. In answer to this request, Mr Hume wrote the following letters, which, notwithstanding their value to the reader, the Committee fhould have felt some fcruples against inferting here, if they had not already appeared in another publication.

COPY OF A LETTER FROM DAVID HUME, ESQ. TO THE REVEREND DR HUGH BLAIR, ON THE SUBJECT OF OSSIAN'S POEMS.

DEAR SIR,

Lisle Street, Leicester Fields, 19th Septem. 1763.

I live in a place where I have the pleafure of frequently hearing juftice done to your dif fertation, but never heard it mentioned in a company, where fome one perfon or other did not exprefs his doubts with regard to the authenticity of the poems which are its fubject, and I often hear them totally rejected, with difdain and indignation, as a palpable and moft impudent forgery. This opi

nion has indeed become very prevalent among the men of letters in London; and I can forefee, that in a few years, the poems, if they continue to ftand on their present footing, will be thrown afide, and will fall into final oblivion. It is in vain to say that their beauty will fupport them, independent of their authenticity: No; that beauty is not fo much to the general taste, as to infure you of this event; and if people be once difgufted with the idea of a forgery, they are thence apt to entertain a more difadvantageous notion of the excellency of the production itself. The abfurd pride and caprice of Macpherson himself, who fcorns, as he pretends, to fatisfy any body that doubts his veracity, has tended much to confirm this general fcepticism; and I must own, for my own part, that though I have had many particular reasons to believe thefe poems ge nuine, more than it is poffible for any Englishman of letters to have, yet I am not entirely without my fcruples on that head. You think that the internal proofs in favour of the poems are very convincing: So they are; but there are alfo internal reafons against them, particularly from the manners, notwithstanding all the art with which you have endeavoured to throw a vernish on that circumftance; and the preservation of fuch long and fuch connected poems, by oral tradition alone, during a courfe of fourteen centuries, is fo much out of the ordiA 3

So in MS.

nary

nary course of human affairs, that it strongest reasons to make us believe it.

requires the My present purpose 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 establish this capital point, and to give us proofs that these poems are, I do not fay fo antient as the age of Severus, but that they were not forged within these five years by James Macpherfon. These proofs muft not be arguments, but teftimonies: Peoples ears are fortified against 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. Macpherson pretends that there is an ancient manufcript of part of Fingal in the family I think of Clanronald. Get that fact ascertained by more than one perfon of credit; let these perfons be acquainted with the Gaelic; let them compare the original and the tranflation; and let them teftify the fidelity of the latter.

But the chief point in which it will be neceffary for you to exert yourself will be, to get pofitive testimony 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 must 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 questions that there are traditional poems in that part of the country, where the names of Offian and Fingal, and Ofcar and Gaul,

are

are mentioned in every ftanza. The only doubt is, whether these poems have any farther resemblance to the poems published by Macpherfon. I was told by Bourke, *

very ingenious Irish gentleman, the author of a tract on the Sublime and Beautiful, that on the first publication of Macpherson's book, all the Irish cried out, We know all those poems; we have always beard them from our infancy; but when he afked more particular queftions, he could never learn that any one had ever heard or could repeat the original of any one paragraph of the pretended tranflation. This generality, then, must be carefully guarded against, as being of no authority.

Your connections among your brethren of the clergy may here be of great ufe to you. You may eafily learn the names of all minifters of that country who understand the language of it. You may write to them, expreffing the doubts that have arifen, and defiring them to fend for fuch of the bards as remain, and make them rehearse their ancient poems. Let the clergymen then have the tranflation in their hands, and let them write back to you, and inform you that they heard fuch a one (naming him), living in fuch a place, rehearse the original of fuch a paffage, from fuch a page to fuch a page of the English translation, which appeared exact and faithful. If you give to the public a fufficient number of fuch teftimonies, you may prevail: But I venture to foretel to you that nothing lefs will ferve the purA 4

* So in MS,

pofe;

pofe; nothing lefs will fo much as command the attention of the public.

Becket tells me that he is to give us a new edition of your Differtation, accompanied with fome remarks on Temora. Here is a favourable opportunity for you to execute this purpofe. You have a just and laudable zeal for the credit of thefe poems. They are, if genuine, one of the greatest curiofities in all refpects, that ever was difcovered in the commonwealth of letters; and the child is, in a manner, become yours by adoption, as Macpherfon has totally abandoned all care of it. Thefe motives call upon you to exert yourself, and I think it were fuitable to your candour, and most fatisfactory also to the reader, to publish all the answers to all the letters you write, even though fome of thefe letters fhould make somewhat against your own opinion in this affair. We fhall always be the more affured that no arguments are ftrained beyond their proper force, and no contrary arguments fuppreffed, where fuch an entire communication is made to us. et joins me heartily in this application; and he owns to me, that the believers in the authenticity of the poems diminish every day among the men of fenfe and reflection. Nothing lefs than what I propofe can throw the balance on the other fide. I depart from hence in about three weeks, and fhould be glad to hear your refolution before that time.

Beck

COPY