wards to Edinburgh University. At college, he was more noted for his rhyming propensities than for devotion to his studies; and, at the age of twenty, he published a poem in six cantos, entitled "The Highlander," which exhibited greater evidence of his desire for fame than of the genius necessary to attain it. He also contributed several pieces to the Scots Magazine. After finishing his studies, he taught the parish school of Ruthven, near his native place, for some time; but shortly afterwards accepted the situation of tutor in the family of Mr Graham of Balgowan. While in this situation he accompanied the son of Mr Graham (afterwards Lord Lynedoch) to the wateringplace of Moffat, in Annandale, and there made the acquaintance of John Home, the author of Douglas. To Home he showed translations of fragments of ancient Gaelic poetry, of which he represented that there were many manuscripts existing in the Highlands. By the advice of Blair, Carlyle, and Fergusson, to whom Home introduced him, Macpherson, in 1760, published Fragments of Ancient Poetry translated from the Gaelic or Erse Language. The little volume created great interest in the literary world; and as it professed to be but a specimen of a large body of traditional poetry yet recoverable, a subscription was started for the purpose of collecting the remainder. Macpherson was intrusted with this mission. He gave up his situation, and extended his researches to those parts of the Highlands that were likely to possess manuscripts, or whose natives could orally repeat ancient Gaelic poetry. These he found principally to be the western parts of Inverness, Skye, and the Western Isles. Having returned to Edinburgh with the fruits of his wanderings, he had the manuscripts and memoranda translated and arranged; and in 1762, "Fingal," an epic poem in six books, and some lesser poems, were given to the public. In 1763, it was followed by "Temora," in eight books, and other poems. No event in modern literature, unless it be the publication of the Waverley Novels, produced so immediate and extensive an interest, or gave rise to so much speculation and controversy. The sale of the poems was very great, and they were translated into most of the languages of Europe. Macpherson is said to have realized £1200 by their publication. But doubts of their authenticity began to arise, which in England enlisted those national prejudices against them which are reflected in the poems of Churchill and Wilkes against the Scotch. And even in Scotland, those literary men who were quite as ignorant of Highland manners and traditions as Englishmen, and at that time almost as much imbued by prejudice against everything Highland as the English were against everything Scotch, were almost as ill qualified as Englishmen for weighing the merits of a question which could only be judged by men conversant with the specialities of the case, and animated by a zeal for the discovery of the truth. Nor can the assailants of the authenticity be supposed to be alone unreasonable and animated by prejudice. A state of Behind him basely came the Graham, But yet his sword quat not the grip, Had forc'd a mortal wound. Graham like a tree with wind o'erthrown, The sad Matilda saw him fall. O spare his life! she cried, Her well-known voice the hero heard, In vain Matilda begs the life I come Sir James the Ross, she cried, She lean'd the hilt against the ground, ELEGY IN SPRING. Of genial heat and cheerful light the source, From southern climes, beneath another sky, The sun, returning, wheels his golden course; Before his beams all noxious vapours fly. Far to the north grim Winter draws his train To his own clime, to Zembla's frozen shore ; Where, thron'd on ice, he holds eternal reign ; Where whirlwinds madden, and where tempests roar. Loos'd from the bands of frost, the verdant ground Again puts on her robe of cheerful green, Again puts forth her flow'rs; and all around, Smiling, the cheerful face of Spring is seen. Behold the trees new-deck their wither'd boughs; Their ample leaves the hospitable plane, The taper elm, and lofty ash, disclose; The blooming hawthorn variegates the scene. The lily of the vale, of flow'rs the queen, Puts on the robe she neither sew'd nor spun: The birds on ground, or on the branches green, Hop to and fro, and glitter in the sun. 'Tis past the iron North has spent his Soon as o'er eastern hills the morning wards to Edinburgh University. At college, he was more noted for his rhyming propensities than for devotion to his studies; and, at the age of twenty, he published a poem in six cantos, entitled "The Highlander," which exhibited greater evidence of his desire for fame than of the genius necessary to attain it. He also contributed several pieces to the Scots Magazine. After finishing his studies, he taught the parish school of Ruthven, near his native place, for some time; but shortly afterwards accepted the situation of tutor in the family of Mr Graham of Balgowan. While in this situation he accompanied the son of Mr Graham (afterwards Lord Lynedoch) to the wateringplace of Moffat, in Annandale, and there made the acquaintance of John Home, the author of Douglas. To Home he showed translations of fragments of ancient Gaelic poetry, of which he represented that there were many manuscripts existing in the Highlands. By the advice of Blair, Carlyle, and Fergusson, to whom Home introduced him, Macpherson, in 1760, published Fragments of Ancient Poetry translated from the Gaelic or Erse Language. The little volume created great interest in the literary world; and as it professed to be but a specimen of a large body of traditional poetry yet recoverable, a subscription was started for the purpose of collecting the remainder. Macpherson was intrusted with this mission. He gave up his situation, and extended his researches to those parts of the Highlands that were likely to possess manuscripts, or whose natives could orally repeat ancient Gaelic poetry. These he found principally to be the western parts of Inverness, Skye, and the Western Isles. Having returned to Edinburgh with the fruits of his wanderings, he had the manuscripts and memoranda translated and arranged; and in 1762, "Fingal," an epic poem in six books, and some lesser poems, were given to the public. In 1763, it was followed by "Temora," in eight books, and other poems. No event in modern literature, unless it be the publication of the Waverley Novels, produced so immediate and extensive an interest, or gave rise to so much speculation and controversy. The sale of the poems was very great, and they were translated into most of the languages of Europe. Macpherson is said to have realized £1200 by their publication. But doubts of their authenticity began to arise, which in England enlisted those national prejudices against them which are reflected in the poems of Churchill and Wilkes against the Scotch. And even in Scotland, those literary men who were quite as ignorant of Highland manners and traditions as Englishmen, and at that time almost as much imbued by prejudice against everything Highland as the English were against everything Scotch, were almost as ill qualified as Englishmen for weighing the merits of a question which could only be judged by men conversant with the specialities of the case, and animated by a zeal for the discovery of the truth. Nor can the assailants of the authenticity be supposed to be alone unreasonable and animated by prejudice. A state of literary warfare was developed, in which, as in all wars, the victory of truth and right was lost sight of in the zeal of party spirit. But the profits from their sale was not the only benefit which the poet reaped from the success of his Ossianic poems. In 1764, he was appointed secretary to Governor Johnston of Florida, and accompanied him to Pensacola. But shortly after their arrival his superior and he disagreed; and after visiting some other of the American colonies and the West Indies, Macpherson returned to England, in 1766, having obtained a pension of £200 a-year. He now took up his residence in London, and occupied himself with writing political pamphlets, and an "Introduction to the History of Great Britain." In 1773, he produced a translation of the Iliad of Homer, in his Ossianic style; but it was a signal failure, and serves as an example of a species of error that is often committed, namely, that of applying a successful style to an unsuitable subject. He was more fortunate, however, as a pamphleteer, in which capacity he defended the taxation of America, and tried to parry the political thrusts of the Letters of Junius. In 1775, he published a "History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover," which is a great improvement on his previous history. His influence as a political writer procured him the appointment of agent to the Nabob of Arcot, which was followed by his being elected member of Parliament for the borough of Camelford, in 1780. the Hebrides again revived the controversy as to Ossian's Poems, and led to disagreeable communications between the Doctor and Macpherson, about which it is sufficient to observe, that however unreasonable and absurd Macpherson's conduct may have been, Johnson's Tour affords the best evidence of its author's incapacity for treating Ossian, or any Scotch subject, in a manner worthy of deference as an authority. Having made a considerable fortune, Macpherson, in 1789, purchased the estate of Raitts, in his native parish. He renamed it Belleville, and built a splendid mansion, in which he hoped to spend the remainder of his days in ease and retirement; but his health gave way sooner than he expected, and, in 1796, he died. His last illness and his will display traits of character which reflect some light upon his conduct. He refused to take the medicines prescribed by his physician, on the plea that it was of no use, as his end was come. In his will, he left £1000 for publishing an edition of Ossian in the original, which was done; and £300 for a monument to his memory at Belleville. He also directed that he should be interred in Westminster Abbey; and accordingly his remains lie in Poet's Corner. After his death, the Highland Society instituted an enquiry regarding the authenticity of the poems which he published as Ossian's; and the Irish antiquaries produced many fragments, on the faith of which they claim Ossian for Ireland. The inquiry elicited the fact, that a large amount of the kind of The publication of Johnson's Tour to poetry to which Macpherson was the first to attract public attention, existed, and that, but for him, it might have never been noticed, before all trace of it disappeared in the changes which the suppression of the Rebellion of 1745 introduced; but no poem was discovered the same in title and tenor with any of his. The fact of his having received Gaelic manuscripts from several families was however established, and some that were recovered are now preserved in the Advocates' Library. The Ossianic controversy can hardly be said to have been settled yet; and from the admitted unsatisfactoriness of the data, and the absence of scholars, with the zeal and ability to place it on a tangible footing, most of those who give the subject a thought are content to compromise the matter by granting Macpherson such a frame-work as those skeletons which Shakespeare's genius breathed into life. The Marquis of Bute, in 1871, was at the cost of publishing a splendid new edition of Ossian's Poems in Gaelic, with Macpherson's English text and a new literal translation, and a dissertation on the authenticity of the poems, by the Rev. Archibald Clerk. THE SONGS OF SELMA. THE ARGUMENT. This poem fixes the antiquity of a custom, which is well known to have prevailed after. wards in the north of Scotland and in Ireland. The bards, at an annual feast, provided by the king or chief, repeated their poems; and such of them as were thought by him worthy of being preserved, were carefully taught to their children, in order to have them transmitted to posterity. It was one of those occasions that afforded the subject of the present poem to Ossian. It is called in the original, The Songs of Selma, which title it was thought proper to adopt in the translation. The poem is entirely lyric, and has great variety of versification. The Address to the Evening Star, with which it opens, has, in the original, all the harmony that numbers could give it ; flowing down with all that tranquillity and softness which the scene described naturally inspires. Star of the descending night! fair is thy light in the west! thou liftest thy unshorn head from thy cloud: thy steps are stately on thy hill. What dost thou behold in the plain? The stormy winds are laid. The murmur of the torrent comes from afar. the distant rock. are on their feeble wings, and the hum of their course is on the field. What dost Roaring waves climb thou behold, fair light? But thou dost smile and depart. The waves come with joy around thee, and bathe thy lovely hair. Farewell, thou silent beam! Let the light of Ossian's soul arise. And it does arise in its strength! I behold my departed friends. Their gathering is on Lora, as in the days that are past. Fingal comes like a watery column of mist: his heroes are around. And see the bards of the song, greyhaired Ullin; stately Ryno; Alpin; with the tuneful voice, and the soft complaint of Minona! How are ye changed, my friends, since the days of Selma's feast! when we contended, like the gales of the spring, that, flying over the hill, by turns bend the feebly whistling grass. Minona then came forth in her beauty; with downcast look and tearful eye; her hair flew slowly on the blast that rushed unfrequent from the hill. The souls of the heroes were sad when she raised the tuneful voice; for often had they seen the grave of Salgar, and the dark dwelling of white-bosomed Colma. Colma left alone |
