nature is open to all, and in her pages there are no new readings. “Many subjects," it is well said by Johnson, "fall under the consideration of an author, which being limited by nature, can admit only of slight and accidental diversities. All definitions of the same thing must be nearly the same; and descriptions, which are definitions of a more lax and fanciful kind, must always have, in some degree, that resemblance to each other which they all have to their object."

It is true, however, if we were fully able to admit that Macpherson could not have obtained these ideas where he professes to have found them, Mr. Laing has produced many instances of such remarkable coincidence as would make it probable that Macpherson frequently translates, not the Gaelic, but the poetical lore of antiquity. Still this is a battery that can only be brought to play on particular points; and then with great uncertainty. The mode of attack used by Mr. Knight, could it have been carried on to any extent, would have proved much more effectual. We shall give the instance alluded to. In his “Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste, 1805, he makes these remarks:

"The untutored, but uncorrupted feelings of all unpolished nations, have regulated their fictions upon the same principles, even when most rudely exhibited. In relating the actions of their gods and deceased heroes, they are licentiously extravagant: for their falsehood could amuse, because it could not be detected: but in describing the common appearances of nature, and all those objects and effects which are exposed to habitual observation, their bards are scrupulously exact; so that an extravagant hyperbole, in a matter of this kind, is sufficient to mark as counterfeit any composition attributed to them. In the early stages of society, men are as acute and accurate in practical observation as they are

limited and deficient in speculative science; and in proportion as they are ready to give up their imaginations to delusion, they are jealously tenacious of the evidence of their senses. James Macpherson, in the person of his blind bard, could say, with applause, in the eighteenth century, Thus have I seen in Cona; but Cona I behold no more thus have I seen two dark hills removed from their place by the strength of the mountain stream. They turn from side to side, and their tall oaks meet one another on high. Then they fall together with all their rocks and trees.'

"But had a blind bard, or any other bard, presumed to utter such a rhapsody of bombast in the hall of shells, amid the savage warriors to whom Ossian is supposed to have sung, he would have needed all the influence of royal birth, attributed to that fabulous personage, to restrain the audience from throwing their shells at his head, and hooting him out of their company as an impudent liar. They must have been sufficiently acquainted with the rivulets of Cona or Glen-Coe to know that he had seen nothing of the kind; and have known enough of mountain torrents in general to know that no such effects are ever produced by them, and would, therefore, have indignantly rejected such a barebaced attempt to impose on their credulity."

The best defence that can be set up in this case will, perhaps, be to repeat, "It is he himself that now speaks, and not Ossian."

Mr. Laing had scarcely thrown down the gauntlet, when Mr. Archibald M'Donald* appeared

"Some of Ossian's lesser poems rendered into verse, with a preliminary discourse, in Answer to Mr. Laing's Critical and Historical Dissertation on the Antiquity of Ossian's poems, 8vo. p. 284. Liverpool, 1805."

Thirlestane's motto. See Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel.

The opinion of the colour of his opposition, whether it be that of truth or error, will depend on the eye that contemplates it. Those who delight to feast with Mr. Laing on the limbs of a mangled poet, will think the latter unanswered; while those* who continue to indulge the animating thought, "that Fingal lived, and that Ossian sung," will entertain a different sentiment. After successfully combating several old positions,† Mr. M'Donald terminates his discussion of the point at issue with these words:

"He (Mr. Laing) declares, that if a single poem of Ossian in MS. of an older date than the present century, (1700) be procured and lodged in a public library, I (Laing) shall return among the first to our national

creed.'

"This is reducing the point at issue to a narrow compass. Had the proposal been made at the outset, it would have saved both him and me a great deal of trouble: not that in regard to ancient Gaelic manuscripts I could give any more satisfactory account than has been done in the course of this discourse. There the reader will see, that though some of the poems are confessedly procured from oral tradition, yet several gentlemen of veracity attest to have seen among Macpherson's papers several MSS. of a much older date than Mr. Laing requires to be convinced. Though not more credulous than my neighbours, I cannot resist facts so well attested; there are no stronger for believing the best established human transactions.

* A Professor in the University of Edinburgh, the amiable and learned Dr. Gregory, is on the side of the believers in Ossian. His judgment is a tower of strength. See the preface, p. vi to xii, and P. 146 of his "Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World."

+Such as the silence of Ossian in respect to religion; his omission of wolves and bears, &c. See also, in the Literary Journal, August, 1804, a powerful encounter of many of Mr. L's other arguments in his Dissertation" against the authenticity of these poems. His ig norance of the Gaelic, and the consequent futility of his etymological remarks, are there ably exposed.

"I understand the originals are in the press, and expected daily to make their appearance. When they do, the public will not be carried away by conjectures, but be able to judge on solid grounds. Till then, let the discussion on this subject be at rest." p. 193-4.

It is curious to remark, and, in this place, not unworthy of our notice, that whilst the controversy is imminent in the decision, whether these poems are to be ascribed to a Highland bard long since gone "to the hall of his fathers," or to a Lowland muse of the last century, it is in the serious meditation of some controversialist to step in and place the disputed wreath on the brows of Hibernia. There is no doubt that Ireland was in ancient times so much connected with the adjacent coast of Scotland, that they might almost be considered as one country, having a community of manners and of language, as well as the closest political connection. Their poetical language is nearly, or rather altogether the same. These coinciding circumstances, therefore, independent of all other ground, afford to ingenuity, in the present state of the question, a sufficient basis for the erection of an hypothetical superstructure of a very imposing nature.

In a small volume published at Dusseldorf in 1787 by Edmund, Baron de Harold, an Irishman, of endless titles,* we are presented with what are called "Poems of Ossian lately discovered.”+

"I am interested," says the Baron in his Preface, "in 、no polemical dispute or party, and give these poems such as they are found in the mouths of the people; and do not

"Colonel Commander of the regiment of Konigsfeld, Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber of his most Serene Highness the Elector Palatin, Member of the German Society of Manheim, of the Royal Antiquarian Society of London, and of the Academy of Dusseldorf."

In some lines in these poems we find the lyre of Ossian called "the old Hibernian Lyre." The idea is not new. See Burke's Observation in Hume's first Letter to Dr. Blair. Also the Collections by Miss Brooke and Miss Kennedy. Compare the story of Conloch with that of Carthon in Macpherson.

pretend to ascertain what was the native country of Os sian. I honour and revere equally a bard of his exalted talents, were he born in Ireland or in Scotland. It is certain, that the Scotch and Irish were united at some early period. That they proceed from the same origin is indisputable; nay, I believe that it is proved beyond any possibility of negating it, that the Scotch derive their origin from the Irish. This truth has been brought in question but of late days; and all ancient tradition, and the general consent of the Scotch nation, and of their oldest historians, agree to confirm the certitude of this assertion. If any man still doubts of it, he will find in Macgeogehan's History of Ireland, an entire conviction established by the most elaborate discussion, and most incontrovertible proofs." p. v. vi.

We shall not stay to quarrel about "Sir Archy's great grandmother,"* or to contend that Fingal, the Irish giant, did not one day go "over from Carrickfergus, and * See Macklin's Love-a-la-mode.

"Selma is not at all known in Scotland. When I asked, and particularly those who were possessed of any poetry, songs or tales, who Fionn was? (for he is not known by the name of Fingal by any) I was answered, that he was an Irishman, if a man; for they sometimes thought him a giant, and that he lived in Ireland, and some times came over to hunt in the Highlands.

"Like a true Scotchman, in order to make his composition more acceptable to his countrymen, Mr. Macpherson changes the name of Fionn Mac Cumhal, the Irishman, into Fingal; which, indeed, sounds much better, and sets him up a Scotch king over the ideal kingdom of Morven in the west of Scotland. It had been a better argument for the authenticity, if he had allowed him to be an Irishman, and made Morven an Irish kingdom, as well as make Ireland the scene of his battles; but, as he must need make the hero of an epic poem a great character, it was too great honour for any other country but Scotland to have given birth to so considerable a personage. All the authentic histories of Ireland give a full account of Fingal, or Fionn Mac Cumhal's actions; and any one who will take the trouble to look at Dr. Keating, or any other history of that country, will find the matter related as above: whereas, in the Chronicon Scotorum, from which the list of the Scotch kings is taken, and the pretended MSS. they so much boast of to be seen in the Hebrides, there is not one syllable said of such a name as Fingal."-An Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian. By W. Shaw, A. M. F. S. A. Author of the Gaelic Dictionary and Grammar. London, 1781.

Mr. Shaw crowns his want of faith in Macpherson's Ossian with this piece of information. "A gentleman promised to ornament a