"reluctance which men shew in praising and rewarding genius. It often happens, that the man who writes, dif"fers greatly from the same man in common life. His "foibles, however, are obliterated by death, and his better part, his writings, remain: his character is formed from "them, and he that was no extraordinary man in his own

'

time, becomes the wonder of succeeding ages. From this 66 source proceeds our veneration for the dead. Their "virtues remain, but the vices, which were once blended " with their virtues, have died with themselves. This con"sideration might induce a man, diffident of his abilities, ta "ascribe his own compositions to a person, whose remote antiquity, and whose situation, when alive, might well answer for "faults which would be inexcusable in a writer of this age. Án " ingenious gentleman made this observation, but when "he had read the epic poem, his sentiments were changed. "I am persuaded the public will be as thoroughly con"vinced when they shall see the poems; and that some "will think, notwithstanding the disadvantages with which "the works ascribed to Ossian appear, it would be a very cc uncommon instance of self-denial in me to disown them, were "they really of my composition." The extraordinary selfdenial of which he was conscious, was the last proof which a genuine translation could have suggested. But the strange deduction, that the neglect of living authors, and the fame and veneration acquired by the dead, might induce a person diffident of his abilities, to ascribe his own compositions to one whose remote antiquity, and whose situation while alive, might exempt the work from the severe criticism of the present generation, removes all doubt concerning his real meaning, that the poems ascribed to Ossian were altogether his own compositions, of which he was unwilling to relinquish the merit, though unable openly to avow the deceit,

This preface was judiciously withdrawn from the subsequent editions; but he concludes a dissertation on the Era, or antiquity of Ossian, with the affected modesty of a young translator doubtful of success: "That his transla"tion is literal; that the translator, as he claims no "merit from his version, wishes that the imperfect "semblance he draws, may not prejudice the world "against an original which contains what is beautiful in'

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simplicity, or grand in the sublime 64" Not satisfied with a doubtful translation, a man of letters, possessed of an original manuscript, comments and dwells upon it; communicates it with rapture to his friends; conveys it in a faithful edition to the world; deposits it in some public library for the inspection of the curious, and finally bequeaths it to some public institution. But Macpherson informs us, in an advertisement prefixed to Fingal; "That "he was advised by some men of genius, his friends, to print the originals by subscription, as a better way to "satisfy the public concerning their authenticity, than to deposit the manuscript copies in a public library; but as "no subscribers appeared, he takes it for the judgment of "the public," (a strange conclusion,) " that neither the one 66 nor the other was necessary. However, he assures the (" public of a design to print the originals, as soon as the "translator shall have time to transcribe them for the press; "and if this publication shall not take place, copies will "then be deposited in one of the public libraries, to pre❝vent so ancient a monument of genius from being lost." That he was then preparing, and ready to publish an Earse version, had it proved as profitable as the English original, I have no doubt. In the Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, prefixed to the Temora, adverting to the insinua

sertation.

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tions made, and to the doubts entertained, respecting their authenticity, "To me," he says, " they give no concern, as I have it always in my power to remove them." From this self-denying power to produce the originals, we must conclude that the Earse version, now to be imposed on the public, was then executed. Ten years afterwards, when the reputation of Ossian, and the foundations of his own fortune were established, Macpherson, in an improved ediin his Dis- tion of the poems, assumes a higher tone. At the same time that he asserts their authenticity, he insinuates his claim to the whole merit or infamy of the imposture, the motive of which he, in the same dissertation, condescends to explain. "Those who alone are capable of transferring," (not translating)" ancient poetry into a modern language, "might be better employed in giving originals of their own, "were it not for that wretched envy and meanness which "affects to despise contemporary genius. My first publica"tion was merely accidental. Had I then met with less "approbation, my after pursuits would have been more

profitable. Whether the suspicions concerning the au"thenticity of the poems are suggested by prejudice or "malice, I neither know nor care. Those who have "doubted my veracity, have paid a compliment to my

genius, and were even the allegation true, my self-denial might have atoned for my fault. I assure my antagonists, "that I should not translate what I could not imitate; but "an age that produces few marks of genius, ought to "be sparing of admiration; and unless genius were in fa"shion, Homer himself might have written in vain. Were

my aim to gain the many, I would write a madrigal sooner "than an heroick poem 65." Here his motives are distinctly explained. The miscarriage of his first Epic, the High

4 Ossian's Poems, ii. 259-61. edit. 1773.

65 Idem,

lander, was secretly ascribed to the envy and meanness which affect to despise contemporary genius. The encouragement given to his first avowed production, the Fragments, induced him to persist in the imposition, which is carefully extenuated, and faintly denied. Whether the suspicions concerning the authenticity of the poems were the result of prejudice or of malice, he declares with indifference, nee scio nec scire cupio; and he intimates in plain terms, that the translator was at least equal in genius to his supposed original. Instead of vindicating the authenticity of his own, he enters into an angry examination of the Irish poems, which were all in his hands; and which, allowing for his habitual fiction, are the identical, and indeed the only originals that Hill and the bishop of Meath discovered, or the Perth editors of the Gaelic Poems could procure in the highlands. For the authenticity of the originals, he discovers a supine indifference or contempt. But his jealousy of the Irish pretensions to Ossian, and his parental solicitude for the poems, which he observes with truth, "cannot well belong to Ireland and to me at "once 55" can be compared to nothing else than the resentment of a man who receives with visible complacency, an intimation that he had provided a son and heir for his deceased friend; but is quite enraged, and indignant when another claims a share in the supposititious birth,

2. But the preface, which is always last written, avows the deception in the most unequivocal terms. "Without "increasing his genius, the author may have improved "his language, in the eleven years that the poems have "been in the hands of the public. Errors in diction "might have been committed at twenty-four, which the "experince of a riper age may remove, and some exuber "ances in imagery may be restrained with advantage, by

Ossian's Poems, ii, 259-61. edit. 1773.

"a degree of judgment acquired in the progress of time. "In a convenient indifference for a literary reputation, "the author hears praise without being elevated, and ribal"dry without being depressed.-The taste which defines genius by the points of the compass, however ludicrous "in itself, is often a serious matter in the sale of a work. When "rivers define the limits of abilities, as well as of coun"tries, a writer may measure his success by the latitude "under which he was born. It was to avoid a part of this "inconvenience, that the author is said by some, who speak without any authority, to have ascribed his own productions to another name. If this was the case, he "was but young in the art of deception, as the translator, "when he placed his author in antiquity, should have been "born on this side the Tweed.-But the truth is, that to <c 'judge aright requires almost as much genius as to write "well; and good critics are almost as rare as great poets.

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Though two hundred thousand Romans stood up when "Virgil came into the theatre, Varius only could correct "the Æneid.-The novelty of cadence, in what is called "a prose version, though not destitute of harmony, will "C not, to common readers, supply the absence of the fre"quent returns of rhyme. This was the opinion of the "writer himself, whose first intention was to publish in

verse; and as the making of poetry may be learned by "industry, he had served his apprenticeship, though in "secret, to the muses." As a proof that prose was adopted not from necessity but choice, he proceeds to the most impudent fiction of the whole; the maid of Lulan, a poem lost in the original Norse, but preserved by tradition in an Earse translation, and when transferred into English, inserted in his preface both in prose and verse. "The writer," he concludes," has now resigned the poems to their fate :" of the foreign versions, he observes, that "genuine poetry, "like gold, loses little when properly transfused;" and