73
of that literary novelty which was afterwards to attract
so large a portion of the world's notice, and to excite
so much discussion and dissension in its literary
circles.
The Fragments were declared to be genuine re-
mains of ancient Celtic poetry; and were, as well
from that circumstance as their own intrinsic merit,
received with the utmost enthusiasm and delight.
Every one read them, and every one admired them;
and, altogether, a sensation was created in the world
of letters which it had known but on few occasions
before. As it was intimated that other specimens
of this ancient poetry might be recovered, a sub-
scription was immediately begun, to enable Macpher-
son to quit his employment as a family preceptor, and
to undertake a mission into the Highlands to secure
them. With the wishes of his patrons on this occa-
sion, the principal of whom were Dr. Blair, Dr.
Robertson, Dr. Carlyle, and Mr. Hume, Macpherson
readily complied, and lost no time in proceeding in
quest of more "fragments," having been furnished
previously to his setting out with various letters of
recommendation and introduction from the influen-
tial persons just named to gentlemen resident in the
Highlands.
After making an extensive tour through the main-
land and isles, he returned to Edinburgh, and in
1762 presented to the world the first portion of the
results, real or pretended, of his mission. This was
"Fingal, an ancient Epic Poem in six books;
together with several other Poems, composed by
Ossian, the Son of Fingal: translated from the Gaelic,"
4to. These poems were received with equal, if not
yet greater applause, than that which had hailed
the first specimen Macpherson had given of Celtic
poetry. The demand for the work was immense,
and the fame of the translator and saviour, as he
was deemed, of these presumed relics of ancient
literature was rapidly spread, not only over Britain,
but over all Europe. They were almost immediately
translated into nearly every language spoken on the
Continent; and in each of these translations, Mac-
pherson was alluded to in terms "that might," as
he himself says, "flatter the vanity of one fond of
fame,"—a circumstance which must have been highly
gratifying to him, for he was fond of fame, even
inordinately so, and was known to have been under
the influence of a violent passion for literary repute
from a very early period of his life.
In the following year, viz. 1763, the poem of
Fingal, &c., was succeeded by " Temora, in eight
books, with other Poems, by Ossian," 4to. This
was also well received, but scarcely with the same
degree of enthusiasm which had marked the recep-
tion of the preceding poems. A change had taken
place both with regard to Macpherson himself per-
sonally and his poetry. A suspicion as to the
authenticity of the latter was now beginning to steal
over the public mind; and the former, from being a
modest man, as he was represented to be by Mr.
Hume, had become insolent and arrogant. Whether
this last was the result of the operation of extra-
ordinary success on an ill-regulated mind, or the
effect of frequent irritation from the attacks of the
sceptical, to which Macpherson was now certainly
subjected, it would not perhaps be easy to determine.
It probably arose partly from both. The likelihood
that the latter consideration had, at any rate, some
share in producing this change of demeanour is con-
siderable, when the nature of Macpherson's disposi-
tion, which was ardent, haughty, impatient, and
irascible, is taken into account. That such a change,
however, had taken place, is certain; and the cir-
cumstance derives no little interest from the person
by whom, and the manner in which, it is marked.
"You must not mind," says Mr. Hume, in a letter
to Dr. Blair on the subject of the poems of Ossian,
"so strange and heteroclite a mortal (Macpherson),
than whom I have scarce ever known a man more
perverse and unamiable." This was Mr. Hume's
opinion of him in 1763; and it will be remarked
how oddly it contrasts with that which he expressed
regarding him in 1760. That Mr. Hume, however,
saw sufficient reason in Macpherson's conduct thus
to alter his opinion of him, no man can doubt who
knows anything of the character of the illustrious
historian, himself one of the most amiable of men.
In 1764, the year following that in which Temora
appeared, Macpherson obtained the appointment of
secretary to Governor Johnstone, then about to set
out for the settlement of Pensacola, of which he was
made chief. After a short residence in the colony,
during which he had assisted in the construction and
arrangement of its civil government, a difference
arose between Macpherson and the governor, and
they parted. The former left the settlement, visited
several of the West India islands and some provinces
of North America, and finally returned to England
in 1766.
He now took up his residence in London, and
shortly after resumed his literary pursuits; these,
however, as the Ossianic poems were now exhausted,
were of an entirely different nature from those which
had hitherto employed him. His first public ap-
pearance again as an author was in 1771, when he
produced a work, entitled An Introduction to the
History of Great Britain and Ireland, 4to. This
work, he says himself, he composed merely for
private amusement. Whatever were the incitements
which led to its production, necessity, at any rate,
could not have been amongst the number; for Mac-
pherson, if not already comparatively wealthy, was
rapidly becoming so by the extensive sale of the
poems. Whether written, however, for amusement,
or with a view to fame, the author of the Introduc-
tion had no reason to congratulate himself on the
result of its publication. Both the book and the
writer were attacked from various quarters with
much bitterness of invective, and a controversy re-
garding its merits and the opinions it promulgated,
arose, which was but little calculated to improve the
irritable temper of its author, or to add to his happi-
ness. Nor was this treatment compensated by any
success to the work itself. It made a sufficient noise;
but yielded neither fame nor profit. The former
was the result of its author's celebrity; the latter, it
is to be feared, of his incapacity.
In an evil hour for his literary reputation Mac-
pherson, with more confidence than wisdom, began
a translation of the Iliad of Homer. This work he
completed, and gave to the world in 1773. Its re-
ception was mortifying in the extreme. Men of
learning laughed at it, critics abused it; and, not-
withstanding some strenuous efforts on the part of
his friends, particularly Sir John Elliot, it finally
sank under one universal shout of execration and
contempt. The finishing blow to this production
was inflicted by the Critical Review, in which it was
ably and fatally criticized.
"There is nothing," says one of the most able and
elegant of Macpherson's commentators, Dr. Graham,
the late learned minister of Aberfoyle, "there is
nothing which serves to set Macpherson's character
and powers in a stronger light than his egregious
attempt to render the great father of poetry into
prose, however natural it might have been for him
to have made this attempt after his success in doing
the same office to Ossian." The temerity of this