fragments of poems, which
they had been able to obtain, contained often the substance, and
sometimes the "literal expression (the _ipsissima verba_)" of passages
given by MacPherson. "But," continues the "Report," "the Committee has
not been able to obtain any one poem the same in title and tenor with the
poems published by him. It is inclined to believe that he was in use to
supply chasms and to give connection, by inserting passages which he did
not find; and to add what he conceived to be dignity and delicacy to the
original composition, by striking out passages, by softening incidents,
by refining the language: in short, by changing what he considered as too
simple or too rude for a modern ear."

[14] "Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Poems." See _ante_, p. 313.

[15] Clerk.

[16] "The Poems of Ossian in the Original Gaelic, with a Literal
Translation into Latin by the late Robert Macfarland, etc., Published
under the Sanction of the Highland Society of London," 3 vols., London,
1807. The work included dissertations on the authenticity of the poems
by Sir Jno. Sinclair, and the Abbe Cesarotti (translated). Four hundred
and twenty-three lines of Gaelic, being the alleged original of the
seventh book of "Temora," had been published with that epic in 1763.

[17] "Popular Tales of the West Highlands," J. F. Campbell, Edinburgh,
1862. Vol. IV. P. 156.

[18] He suggests Lachlan MacPherson of Strathmashie, one of MacPherson's
helpers. "Popular Tales of the West Highlands."

[19] "Fragments," etc.

[20] Seventh book of "Temora." See _ante_, p. 321.

[21] "Leabhar Na Feinne," p. xii.

[22] See _ante_, p. 313, note.

[23] "Encyclopaedia Britannica": "Celtic Literature."

[24] For a further account of the state of the "authenticity" question,
see Archibald McNeil's "Notes on the Authenticity of Ossian's Poems,"
1868; and an article on "Ossian" in _Macmillan's Magazine_, XXIV. 113-25.

[25] "The sweet voice of Cona never sounds so sweetly as when it speaks of
itself."

[26] "The Complaint of Ninathoma."

[27] For some MS. Notes of Byron in a copy of "Ossian," see Phelps'
"English Romantic Movement," pp. 153-54.

[28] "Sorrows of Werther," Letter lxviii.

[29] "Caledonia, or Ancient Scotland," book ii. chapter vii. part iv.

[30] "Childe Harold," canto iii.

[31] The same is true of Burns, though references to Cuthullin's dog
Luath, in "The Twa Dogs"; to "Caric-thura" in "The Whistle"; and to