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Title: Ossianic controversy
        A lecture delivered to the Greenock Highland Society

Author: Rev. John M'Pherson

Release date: November 23, 2025 [eBook #77301]

Language: English

Original publication: Greenock: A. Mackenzie & Co, 1873

Credits: Mairi, Eleni Christofaki and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (National Library of Scotland)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY ***




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OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY: A LECTURE DELIVERED TO THE GREENOCK HIGHLAND
SOCIETY

BY THE REV. JOHN M‘PHERSON, GAELIC PARISH.


[Decoration]


GREENOCK: A. MACKENZIE & CO. 1873.




[Illustration: Clanna nan Gàidheal ri guaillibh a chéile.]

OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY.


BEFORE we approach the merits of this controversy, we must briefly
allude to its origin, and the circumstances which at first roused
suspicion in the minds of literary men regarding the authenticity and
genuineness of the Ossianic poems.

About the middle of the last century John Home, the author of the
once-celebrated tragedy of “Douglas,” had his attention drawn to the
subject of Gaelic poetry, through an article in the _Scots Magazine_,
written by a man named Jerome Stone, a native of the parish of Scoonie,
Fifeshire, and rector of an academy at Dunkeld. Mr Home conferred with
Professor Ferguson, of the Edinburgh University, on the subject of
Gaelic poetry, and questioned him as to the truth of Stone’s statements
regarding its excellence. Professor Ferguson confirmed the opinion of
Mr Stone, regarding the merits of those hitherto uncollected stores
of intellectual wealth, treasured up in the poetical compositions
possessed by the Highlanders of Scotland. James Macpherson, a native
of Badenoch, was officiating as tutor to the family of Mr Graham,
younger of Balgowan, in the year 1759. In the summer of that year Mr
Home happened to be at Moffat, where he met Macpherson. In the course
of conversation he discovered that Macpherson was in possession of
some pieces of original Gaelic poetry, one of which he desired to
be translated. Macpherson furnished him with a translation of two
fragments which he very much admired. On his return to Edinburgh, Home
communicated to the circle of his literary friends his discoveries of
valuable curiosities in literature. The literary circle at the time
consisted of David Hume, the historian; Dr Robertson, Dr Blair, Dr
Carlyle, Mr Home, and others. Of these Dr Blair specially interested
himself in the collecting and publishing of these Ossianic poems. So
much did he admire the specimens shown him by Mr Home, that he desired
an immediate interview with Mr Macpherson. The latter informed him
that these were but specimens of greater and more considerable poems,
well known to the natives of the Highlands, and frequently rehearsed
at their firesides. Dr Blair urged him to translate into English all
the fragments at his command, at the same time promising that he would
secure their circulation. Macpherson was most reluctant to undertake
this task, declaring, what every Highlander knows to be true, that
“no translation of his could do justice to the spirit and force of
the original; and that, besides injuring them by translation, he
apprehended that they would be very ill relished by the public, as
being so very different from the strain of modern ideas, and of modern
and correct poetry.” By appealing, however, to his patriotism as a
Highlander, Macpherson was prevailed upon to undertake the duty of
translation, and several pieces were published in the year 1760, under
the title “Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of
Scotland.”

These “Fragments” having obtained much public favour, Macpherson was
prevailed upon, by Dr Blair and a circle of friends, to disengage
himself from all other employments and to set out on a tour to the
Highlands. Consequently, in the year 1760, he travelled through the
north-western parts of Inverness-shire, the Isle of Skye, and some
of the adjacent islands. In the course of his tour he corresponded
with Dr Blair and others as to his success in discovering the remains
of ancient poetry. On his return to Edinburgh, in the year 1761, he
published “Fingal,” an epic poem; and in the following year, 1762,
another epic poem called “Temora,” affixing to one of the books of the
latter the original Gaelic.

The success of these poems was truly marvellous. The literary world
stood aghast and gazed upon them with admiration. They were translated
into French, German and Italian. They obtained a place in the library
of Napoleon, and received the commendation of Goëthe, of Schiller, and
of the great historian David Hume. But the tide was soon to turn. The
old prejudice--“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”--stirred up
many opponents. Was it possible that such gems should be found among
such barbarous hordes as the Highlanders of Scotland? Had they been
discovered in the plains of sunny England, these poems would have
been perfectly genuine; but who would believe that such gems could be
found among the savages of the North? Macpherson was denounced as an
impudent forger. The great moralist Dr Johnson, Mr Pinkerton, and Mr
Laing, author of a History of Scotland, took up the cudgel against
him. The prejudices against Highlanders which still exist, even in
the Nineteenth Century, in the minds of Lowlanders and Englishmen, I
believe were the origin of such violent assaults; but we cannot say
that Macpherson himself was free of blame. Instead of boldly coming
forward to defend his position he became sulky. When called upon to
publish the originals he declared he had no money. When the money
was offered to him he had no time. Indeed, it appears to me that to
Macpherson’s proud and sullen temper, combined with his ambiguous
manner of expression--at one time calling himself author, at another
translator--we are indebted for all the reasonable suspicions attached
to the authenticity of these Ossianic poems. In a letter to Dr Blair,
dated 6th October, 1763, David Hume depicts the feelings with which
Macpherson regarded the attacks made upon his veracity.

       *       *       *       *       *

“You must expect,” he says, “no assistance from Macpherson, who flew
into a passion when I told him of the letter I had wrote to you. But
you must not mind so strange and heteroclite a mortal, than whom I
have scarce ever known a man more perverse and unamiable. He will
probably depart for Florida with Governor Johnstone, and I would advise
him to travel among the Chickisaws or Cherokees in order to tame and
civilize him.” But this must be said in his behalf that he deposited
his MSS. with his publishers Beckett and De Hondt, Strand, London, and
published the fact in the newspapers. But no one took the trouble of
examining them. His friends did not think it necessary, and his foes
were not equal to the task. Had he, however, preserved the original
MSS. collected from his friends in the Highlands, the controversy would
have been settled at his death; but the originals were either lost or
destroyed, and the poems left behind him and published by the Highland
Society of London in 1807, were found to be either in the handwriting
of Macpherson or his amanuensis. Such is the origin of this controversy.

I now turn your attention to its merits, and shall endeavour to
classify and set before you, in an intelligible and concise manner, the
arguments for and against the authenticity of the Ossianic poems.

I. It is objected that poems breathing a spirit of such tenderness
and refinement could not possibly have been the production of such a
barbarous people as the Caledonians. Ossian is supposed to have lived
about the close of the second or the beginning of the third century,
and it is argued from the state of civilisation among the Celtic
nations of that period that such a work as that of Ossian must be an
impossibility. “The production of the Celtic muse,” says Mr Laing,
“would persuade us to believe that the early manners of the Highlanders
displayed a civilisation inconsistent with an utter ignorance of the
arts of life; an uniform heroism unknown to barbarians; a gallantry
which chivalry never inspired; a humanity which refinement has never
equalled, and that before their advance to the shepherd state they
possessed a correct taste, a polished diction, a cultivated and sublime
poetry enriched with the choicest images of classical antiquity
and intermixed with all the sentimental affectation of the present
times.” (History of Scotland, Vol. III.) As this is one of the gravest
objections offered against the authenticity of the poems, it deserves
our gravest consideration. Many are but too glad to believe in the
barbarity of our Highlanders even as they exist in the Nineteenth
Century; and when they think of the period of fourteen or fifteen
centuries elapsing between the composition and publication of these
poems, they are too ready to acquiesce without much further inquiry
in the opinion expressed by Mr Laing. Mr Laing pays a high compliment
to the poetry ascribed to Ossian, and if these poems be his genuine
productions he indirectly pays a similar compliment to the author and
to the race to which he belonged. The sculptured stones of Scotland,
the vitrified forts, the brave resistance offered by the Caledonians
to the Romans, the speech of Galgacus at the battle of the Grampians,
all show that the Caledonians of the second and third centuries were
not altogether so barbarous as Mr Laing would have them. He speaks of
the Celts as not having advanced even to the shepherd state, and is
consequently staggered at the refinement of their poetry and the spirit
of generosity and affection which it breathes. He seems, however, to
forget the fact that poetry is earlier than prose, and comes earlier
into perfection. Poetry may well be defined the language of impassioned
feeling, and does not require cultivated reason. The earliest records
of all nations are preserved not in prose but in poetry, and in
as much as it is earlier cultivated than the other arts it comes
sooner into perfection. The human race advances towards civilisation
according to well-defined stages. We find man first as a hunter, then
as a shepherd, then as farmer or agriculturist, and, last of all, in
the commercial state. The poetry of any era embodies the prevailing
sentiment of that era, and, if abundantly collected, forms a very fair
index of the mental culture of that age. In the days of Ossian the
Caledonians were hunters; hence Mr Laing assumes that their breasts
could not have been filled with any noble and generous feelings, such
as are embodied in the character of Ossianic heroes. Is he warranted
to make this assumption? If so, can he not make some allowance for the
tenderness and generosity of the Bard’s own nature and the colouring
of his fancy? Do we not know that, as waters receive their taste from
the sands through which they pass, a man’s writings take the colour of
his own mind? Do we not know that a rude age is the age for poetry,
and that, in as much as the reason is cultivated, the imagination is
curbed? Besides, Julius Cæsar makes mention of the Druids, and from
the description given of them he no doubt includes in that order the
Bards. They, the Bards, had their Colleges, and some of their pupils
were twenty years under training. Rude then as the Celts might have
been as to the knowledge of the useful arts, we could not expect them
to be rude in regard to the art of poetry. Ossian’s poems are just what
we would expect as the effusions of the hunters’ age, artless, simple,
bold, sublime.

II. But it has been said that, supposing these poems had been composed
by Ossian, to preserve them for fourteen or fifteen centuries would
have been impossible. In a letter upon this subject to Dr Blair,
David Hume says, “The preservation of such long and such connected
poems by oral tradition alone, during a course of fourteen centuries,
is so much out of the ordinary course of human affairs, that it
requires the strongest reasons to make us believe it.” In a letter
to Gibbon he states the same objection in different words, taking
good care to point out to him the rude and uncivilised character of
the Highlanders. That “the preservation of such long and connected
poems by oral tradition,” throughout a lengthened period of fourteen
centuries, seems at first sight strange, cannot be denied. But we must
remember that we are not to judge bygone ages entirely by the present;
and I cannot help thinking that had the historian taken a little more
trouble to investigate the manners, and customs, and institutions of
the Highlanders, during the fourteen or fifteen centuries referred
to, he would have discovered that the preservation of these poems was
not so wonderful as at first he imagined. Men in those days possessed
more retentive memories than in the days of Hume. The art of printing
has increased knowledge, but it has not improved the memory. When men
have their libraries stored with books they have no occasion to tax
their memories, they have only to refer to their authorities. But in an
age when knowledge is not so stereotyped, men have to trust to their
own mental repositories. In those days literature was scarce, and
consequently precious, and, as an heirloom, handed down from father
to son. The Highlanders occupied an isolated position, and during the
winter evenings, and at their feasts and entertainments, their chief
pastime consisted in reciting the poetry of their country’s bards.
Besides, the bardic was one of their most ancient, and, at the same
time, one of their most honoured institutions. The Druids were their
priests and philosophers, and the Bards their poets and historians. One
of the laws of the Druids provided that none of their mysteries should
be committed to writing; and a Bard, in order to obtain his honorary
degree, required to commit to memory so many thousand pieces of the
poetical compositions of his native country. Thus we see that by the
institution of the Bards, and the constant rehearsal of the people,
these poems could have been handed down from one generation to another.

III. Further, it has been said that the Highlands of Scotland cannot
produce a single poem of older date than the eighteenth century. “If a
single poem of Ossian,” says Mr Laing, “in manuscript, of an older date
than the present century (1700), be procured and lodged in a public
library, I shall return among the first to our national creed.” Whether
Mr Laing did or did not return to his national creed, I am not in a
position to say; but this we know, that the manuscripts of the Dean of
Lismore, lately published by the Rev. Dr M‘Lachlan, of Edinburgh, were
written between the years 1512 and 1526.

IV. But Mr Laing is not contented with making this bold but unfounded
assertion, he charges Macpherson with plagiarism. He tells us that he
had stolen these compositions from Holy Writ, and the classical poets
of ancient and modern times. This charge is ably met by Dr Clark, of
Kilmallie, in his “Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Poems of
Ossian,” to which I would refer any one who is desirous of seeing the
whole subject clearly and concisely discussed. Strange, indeed, that
Mr Laing had not said that Ossian stole his glowing pictures from the
ancient classics! He was, no doubt, far too barbarous to drink from
such refined fountains! It is easy to charge an author with plagiarism,
but not so easy to substantiate such a charge. If two authors, in
describing the same scene, employ the same images, does that prove
that either is a plagiarist? On the contrary, we would say that, more
especially in describing natural objects, the nearer they approach each
other in their descriptions the rarer their genius. For, in what does
true poetical genius consist but in “holding up the mirror to nature?”

V. It has been further alleged that the want of any allusion to
religion proves the work to be a forgery. Mr Laing affirms, “that
from the difficulty of inventing a religious mythology, Macpherson
has created a savage society of refined Atheists, who believe in
ghosts, but not in deities; and that, solicitous only for proper
machinery, he has rendered the Highlanders a race of unparalleled
infidels, who believed in no God but the ghosts of their fathers.” It
is certainly not easy to account for the absence of any allusion to
religion in the poems. Man in all ages, and under all circumstances,
is a religious being, and we cannot believe that the Highlanders
were a race of refined Atheists in the time of Ossian. The best
solution of the difficulty is that given by Dr Graham of Aberfoyle. He
shows that, by the testimony of antiquity, the Celtic hierarchy was
divided into several classes, to each of which was assigned its own
particular department. The Druids were first in rank, the Bards next,
and the Enbages lowest. To the Druids were committed the mysteries of
religion--to the Bards the celebration of the warrior’s achievements,
and the recording of the nation’s history. Each order had its province
assigned to it, and the one was not to encroach upon the prerogatives
of the others. It is not improbable that the Bards were prohibited by
law from mixing up the mysteries of religion with the secular themes of
their songs; and even granting, as is by most writers supposed, that
before Ossian’s time the Druidical hierarchy had been abolished, may
we not suppose that by the force of custom the Bard would have been
restrained from making any allusion to religion?

VI. It has been said, if the poems, of which Macpherson pretended
to have given a translation, did really exist, how does it happen
that they could not afterwards be found among the Highlanders? Surely
Macpherson did not gather up all the manuscripts available at the time;
and even, supposing he did, poems that for ages had been preserved by
oral tradition would still survive in the memories of those who were in
the habit of reciting them. That such poems did exist in Macpherson’s
day is proved by his own confession, the testimony of some of those
from whom pieces were received, and the evidence of the Rev. Andrew
Gallie, Badenoch, and Mr Macpherson, Strathmashie, who had seen them
in his possession, and assisted him in collating the various editions,
and in translating the most difficult passages. But it is rather
unfortunate that the Highland Society Committee, after the strictest
inquiry, were obliged to confess that though they had discovered
pieces in substance and expression the same as those translated by
Macpherson, yet they could not say they had found _any one poem_
throughout exactly the same in title or tenor. This is perhaps the
strongest argument against the authenticity of the Ossianic poetry. It
is, however, to be remembered that the Committee had not begun their
search till after the lapse of forty years, during which period the
condition of the Highlanders had undergone a very considerable change.
Indeed the probability is that had the poems not been collected before
the end of last century they would have been entirely lost to the
literary world. After the Rebellion of 1745 the old system of clanship
was broken up--the people, oppressed by tyrannical laws, and the
growing rapacity of landlords, lost their chivalry and their poetry.
It must also be remembered that, through the energy and zeal of Sir
John Sinclair, Bart., and the kindness of Doctor Cameron, Catholic
Bishop of Edinburgh, we have obtained sufficient evidence to show
that a collection of Ossianic poems had been made by the Rev. John
Farquharson, a Jesuit, in the year 1745, while residing at Strathglass.
In 1766 Mr Farquharson was Prefect of Studies at the Scots College,
Douay, when he received a copy of Macpherson’s translation. In presence
of the Rev. James Macgilvray, and others, Farquharson’s manuscripts
were compared with the translation, when Mr Farquharson declared that
he _had all these poems in his collection_. Unhappily his collection
was lost--the leaves being torn and used by the students to kindle
their fires.

Who, then, composed these poems? By some it has been said that they
are of Irish origin. When the works of Ossian were given out to the
world, some of the Irish Celts cried out, these are the poems of our
country. If so, where did Macpherson find them? We have sufficient
evidence that he travelled through the Highlands in search of poetry,
but we have no evidence to show that he ever put a foot upon the
Emerald Isle. We have the positive testimony of several credible
and respectable witnesses, that he had received from them and their
friends some Gaelic MSS., and poetical pieces handed down orally; but
we have no reason to suppose that he ever received MSS. from Ireland.
From Ireland’s proximity to the Western Highlands--from the friendly
intercourse existing between the Irish and Scotch Celts, as well as
from their similarity in language, race, genius and manners, we can
easily suppose that possibly the works of the Caledonian Bard might
have made their way to Ireland. I have not had an opportunity of
examining the Irish poems concerning the “Fiona,” or heroes of Fion
MacComnal; but learned men who have examined them assure us that their
composition is of modern date, and in no way to be compared to the
poetry of the Scottish Bard, at least as far as antiquity is concerned.
They ascribe their origin to the Fifteenth Century.

Mr Skene, in his Introduction and Notes to the _uirsgeuls_ of Ossian
collected by the Dean of Lismore, ascribes their authorship to Mr
Lachlan Macpherson of Strathmashie. He founds his argument upon some
vague rumour he had heard while residing in the neighbourhood of
Strathmashie, concerning MSS. found among Mr Macpherson’s papers at
his death. But are we to believe such vague reports? There is no doubt
that Strathmashie did much in aiding his clansman in collecting Gaelic
MSS., in transcribing and revising them; but we cannot believe that
he was the author of any of them. He was indeed a poet, and a poet
of no mean order, but quite incapable of singing in the sublime and
heroic strains of the “aged Bard.” The pieces he has left us are the
best proof of this. The most common opinion among those who reject the
authenticity of the Ossianic poetry, is that James Macpherson himself
is the author; that he composed the various pieces in English, and
afterwards translated them into Gaelic. The Highland Society Committee,
in their excellent report, candidly acknowledge that they were unable
to find among the natives of the Highlands poems exactly the same as
those given to the world by Macpherson; they also acknowledged that
Macpherson may have supplied chasms, and softened incidents, and
improved the text; but I do not think that any Celtic scholar capable
of appreciating Gaelic poetry can believe that Macpherson wrote those
ascribed to Ossian. On all hands it is acknowledged that he was no
Gaelic scholar, and his “Translation of Homer,” and “The Highlander,”
prove him to be no poet. I would ask any Gaelic scholar if his Ossian
reads like a translation--which is always tame and insipid? Do you
believe that Homer could have been constructed out of Pope’s version,
or Virgil out of Dryden’s? Why then Ossian out of Macpherson’s
translation? The strongest proofs of authenticity are those only
known to the Celtic scholar--the internal evidence. If Macpherson
was the author his was the greatest poetical genius that was ever
known--greater than Ossian or Homer. Ossian could have easily described
what he had seen and heard; but Macpherson, if the author, had to throw
himself back many centuries and create all for himself. The conclusion,
therefore, to which I am inevitably driven is that,--“Fingal lived and
Ossian sang.”

[Illustration]



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