prefixed to the whole collection an essay
"Ueber Ossian und die Lieder alter Voelker" written in 1773. Schiller was
one of the converts; Klopstock and his circle called themselves "bards";
and an exclamatory and violent mannerism came into vogue, known in German
literary history as _Bardengebruell_. MacPherson's personal history need
not be followed here in detail. In 1764 he went to Pensacola as
secretary to Governor Johnston. He was afterward a government
pamphleteer, writing against Junius and in favor of taxing the American
colonies. He was appointed agent to the Nabob of Arcot; sat in
Parliament for the borough of Camelford, and built a handsome Italian
villa in his native parish; died in 1796, leaving a large fortune, and
was buried in Westminster Abbey. In 1773 he was ill-advised enough to
render the "Iliad" into Ossianic prose. The translation was overwhelmed
with ridicule, and probably did much to increase the growing disbelief in
the genuineness of "Fingal" and "Temora."

[1] "Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland,
and translated from the Gaelic or Erse language." Edinburgh, MDCCLX. 70
pp.

[2] This was sent him by MacPherson and was a passage not given in the
"Fragments."

[3] From "Carthon."

[4] Scandinavia

[5] An unconscious hexameter.

[6] From "Fingal" book ii.

[7] See the dissertation by Rev. Archibald Clerk in his "Poems of Ossian
in the Original Gaelic, with a literal translation into English." 2
vols., Edinburgh, 1870.

[8] This story as been retold, from Irish sources, in Dr. R. D. Joyce's
poem of "Deirdre," Boston, 1876.

[9] See "Leabhar na Feinne, Heroic Gaelic Ballads, Collected in Scotland,
chiefly from 1512 to 1871. Arranged by J. F. Campbell," London, 1872.
Selections from "The Dean of Lismore's Book" were edited and published at
Edinburgh in 1862, by Rev. Thomas MacLauchlan, with a learned
introduction by Mr. W. F. Skene.

[10] Article on "Celtic Literature" in the "Encyclopedia Britannica."

[11] "Aspects of Poetry," by J. C. Shairp, 1872, pp. 244-45 (American
Edition).

[12] Appendix to the Preface to the Second Edition of "Lyrical Ballads."
Taine says that Ossian "with Oscar, Malvina, and his whole troop, made
the tour of Europe; and, about 1830, ended by furnishing baptismal names
for French _grisettes_ and _perruquiers_."--_English Literature_, Vol.
II. p. 220 (American Edition).

[13] The Committee found that Gaelic poems, and