of their song is a burden in every sense.
Mr. Malcolm Laing, one of MacPherson's most persistent adversaries, who
published "Notes and Illustrations to Ossian" in 1805, essayed to show,
by a minute analysis of the language, that the whole thing was a
fabrication, made up from Homer, Milton, the English Bible, and other
sources. Thus he compared MacPherson's "Like the darkened moon when she
moves, a dim circle, through heaven, and dreadful change is expected by
men," with Milton's

"Or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs."

Laing's method proves too much and might be applied with like results to
almost any literary work. And, in general, it is hazardous to draw hard
and fast conclusions from internal evidence of the sort just reviewed.
Taken altogether, these objections do leave a strong bias upon the mind,
and were one to pronounce upon the genuineness of MacPherson's "Ossian,"
as a whole, from impressions of tone and style, it might be guessed that
whatever element of true ancient poetry it contains, it had been
thoroughly steeped in modern sentiment before it was put before the
public. But remembering Beowulf and the Norse mythology, one might
hesitate to say that the songs of primitive, heroic ages are always
insensible to the sublime in nature; or to admit that melancholy is a
Celtic monopoly.

The most damaging feature of MacPherson's case was his refusal or neglect
to produce his originals. The testimony of those who helped him in
collecting and translating leaves little doubt that he had materials of
some kind; and that these consisted partly of old Gaelic manuscripts, and
partly of transcriptions taken down in Gaelic from the recitation of aged
persons in the Highlands. These testimonies may be read in the "Report
of the Committee of the Highland Society," Edinburgh, 1805.[13] It is
too voluminous to examine here, and it leaves unsettled the point as to
the precise use which MacPherson made of his materials, whether, _i.e._,
he gave literal renderings of them, as he professed to do; or whether he
manipulated them--and to what extent--by piecing fragments together,
lopping, dove-tailing, smoothing, interpolating, modernizing, as Percy
did with his ballads. He was challenged to show his Gaelic manuscripts,
and Mr. Clerk says that he accepted the challenge. "He deposited the
manuscript