4. The Gaelic Ossian was published in 1807, accompanied with Macfarlane’s Latin version and Mac Arthur’s dissertation. It came through the hands of Macphersons’s executors, assisted by Dr Thomas Ross, of Lochbroom. Money was collected in the East Indies by military gentlemen to defray the expense of publication, and before Macpherson died in 1796 he had the copy ready for the press; but no traces were to be found of any ancient MSS. which he might have used in preparing his copy, if he ever had any such MSS. that he used. There is nothing exceptionally ancient about the text of 1807.
5. New State of the Question.—Highlanders, with very few exceptions, if any, on its appearance accepted the Gaelic text of 1807 as the genuine originals from which Macpherson translated, and which they regarded as composed by Ossian in the third century. But the views of Johnson and Laing were still subscribed to by the great majority of English-speaking people.
6. Macgregor’s “Genuine Remains.”—Patrick Macgregor, M.A., barrister, published in 1841 the genuine remains of “Ossian” in an English rhythmical translation not much inferior to Dr Clerk’s with a very well-written historical introduction maintaining the authenticity of the Gaelic Ossian.
7. Irish Writers were all along jealous of the attention which Macpherson’s translations secured for Gaelic poetry in Scotland. Societies and individuals determined not to be behind Scotland in supplying the public with ancient Ossianic poems. The Ossianic Society especially published five volumes of tales, and poems, and translations; Macpherson was charged with stealing the substance of his poems from Ireland; and at the same time the arguments of Johnson and Laing were reiterated; while the most of what they themselves published as ancient was not more than a century or two old. The Irish could neither manufacture nor lay their hands on epics like those of James Macpherson, so Dr Drummond, Edward O’Reilly, &c., charged Macpherson with fabricating the poems, when they found they could not prove that he stole them from Ireland. Ireland has extensive Celtic literature; much of it ancient too; but it can show nothing like Macpherson’s productions.
8. Dr W. F. Skene.—This Celtic scholar says:—“A review of all the circumstances which have been allowed to transpire regarding the proceedings of James Macpherson seems rather to lead to the conclusion that the Gaelic version, in the shape in which it was afterwards published, had been prepared in Badenoch, during the months Macpherson passed there, after his return from his Highland tour, with the assistance of Lachlan Macpherson of Strathmashie, and Captain Morrison, and that the English translation was made from it by Macpherson in the same manner in which he had translated the fragments.” The following facts appear to favour Dr Skene’s conclusion:—After Lachlan Macpherson’s death, a paper was found in his repositories containing the Gaelic of the seventh book of Temora, in his handwriting, with many corrections and alterations, and thus described—“First rude draft of the seventh book of Temora.”
Mr Gallie sent to the Highland Society a part of the Gaelic of Fingal, which afterwards appeared as part of the Gaelic version. He had taken it from a MS. he had recovered, written by a friend, “who was at that time with Mr Macpherson and me—a gentleman well known for an uncommon acquaintance with the Gaelic, and a happy facility in writing it in Roman characters.” Pressed to tell who this friend was, he says:—“His name was Lachlan Macpherson, of Strathmashy. He died in 1767.” Dr Skene says:—“This Gaelic version seems, therefore, to have been put together before 1767; and if before 1762, it will account for the original of the seventh book of Temora having been published in that year, and also for an advertisement which appeared soon after the publication of the second quarto, that the originals were lying at the publisher’s, and would be published if a sufficient number of subscribers came forward; but as few subscribers appeared, and fewer came to look at them, they were withdrawn.”
The view of Dr Skene was scarcely maintained hitherto by any Scottish Gaelic scholar. Shaw in 1788 echoed Johnson’s sentiments. He began to read through Macpherson; and was held immediately to scorn by the Gaelic literati.
9. The Late Rev. Thomas Pattison, author of “The Gaelic Bards” (1866), and a man highly capable of forming judgment on the question, says, “When we consider that the finest parts of Macpherson’s Ossian are incontestably proved to have been popular poetry long anterior to his appearing, I think we should throw all prejudice aside, and affirm that whoever composed the poems attributed to Ossian, James Macpherson was not the man; and that whatever merit may belong to him as a translator, or whatever claim he may have to be considered their compiler in their present form, he has no legitimate title to be called their author. They are substantially older than he, probably by many centuries.” Pattison, like many others before him, dwells on Macpherson’s inferior Gaelic scholarship; but the facts do not warrant the conclusion drawn, that Macpherson was incapable of writing the Gaelic Ossian. Macpherson was a man of genius, and quite able to deliver himself in Gaelic as good and classical as many scholars that lived then or since.
10. John F. Campbell, Esq.—The most formidable opponent of the authenticity of Macpherson’s Ossian recently is Mr Campbell of Islay. His earlier views, as expressed in the Highland Tales, were those of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders in general. But the longer he dwelt among the genuine old ballads found in manuscripts and in collections taken down from the oral recitation of Highlanders who lived before Macpherson’s time, the more confirmed he became in his growing conviction that Macpherson was both translator and author, and that the English was first composed. “My opinion now,” he says, “is that Macpherson’s translation was first composed by a great genius, partly from a knowledge of Scotch nature and folk-lore, partly from ideas gathered from books, and that he and other translators afterwards worked at it, and made a Gaelic equivalent whose merit varies according to the translator’s skill and knowledge of Gaelic. It is said that an early copy of the 7th book of Temora, with corrections in Strathmashie’s hand, was found after his death. I suppose that he revised a Gaelic translation by Macpherson, or by some other. His own Gaelic songs are idiomatic, whereas the 7th book of Temora is Saxon Gaelic in general, and nonsense in many passages. The English equivalent is like the rest of Macpherson’s work. In either case, because of matter, manner, orthography, and language, Macpherson’s English and Gaelic Ossian, must have been composed long after Dean MacGregor collected his book in Macpherson’s country, near his district, and in Morven.” This is the opinion of a Gaelic-speaking gentleman thoroughly conversant with the facts of the case, and eminently qualified to maintain his side of the question.
11. Mr Hector MacLean, Mr Campbell’s clever co-adjutor in much of his work, takes a similar view. He says—“The so-called Gaelic Ossian of Macpherson exhibits all the symptoms of being a translation from English. Anglicisms abound everywhere; the structure of the verse is fully as much akin to English as to Gaelic poetry. It is deficient in all the good qualities of style, strength, clearness, and propriety. The versification is exceedingly rugged and irregular; alliteration, so characteristic of Celtic poetry, is generally deficient, and frequently entirely wanting; the sentiment is usually morbid and vapid; and in fact the so-called original Gaelic Ossian is almost in every respect inferior to the so-called English translation.” MacLean at the same time speaks of the ballads in Campbell’s Leabhar na Féinne as “characterised by purity of language, vigour of expression, and smoothness of versification.” MacLean’s thorough knowledge of Gaelic as well as his English culture and philological attainments entitle him to be heard.