But where the whole language is
colloquial, he that has only one part, never gets the rest, as he
cannot get it but by change of residence.
In an unwritten speech, nothing that is not very short is
transmitted from one generation to another. Few have opportunities
of hearing a long composition often enough to learn it, or have
inclination to repeat it so often as is necessary to retain it; and
what is once forgotten is lost for ever. I believe there cannot be
recovered, in the whole Earse language, five hundred lines of which
there is any evidence to prove them a hundred years old. Yet I
hear that the father of Ossian boasts of two chests more of ancient
poetry, which he suppresses, because they are too good for the
English.
He that goes into the Highlands with a mind naturally acquiescent,
and a credulity eager for wonders, may come back with an opinion
very different from mine; for the inhabitants knowing the ignorance
of all strangers in their language and antiquities, perhaps are not
very scrupulous adherents to truth; yet I do not say that they
deliberately speak studied falsehood, or have a settled purpose to
deceive. They have inquired and considered little, and do not
always feel their own ignorance. They are not much accustomed to
be interrogated by others; and seem never to have thought upon
interrogating themselves; so that if they do not know what they
tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly perceive it to be
false.
Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inquiries; and the result of
his investigations was, that the answer to the second question was
commonly such as nullified the answer to the first.
We were a while told, that they had an old translation of the
scriptures; and told it till it would appear obstinacy to inquire
again. Yet by continued accumulation of questions we found, that
the translation meant, if any meaning there were, was nothing else
than the Irish Bible.
We heard of manuscripts that were, or that had been in the hands of
somebody's father, or grandfather; but at last we had no reason to
believe they were other than Irish. Martin mentions Irish, but
never any Earse manuscripts, to be found in the Islands in his
time.
I suppose my opinion of the poems of Ossian is already discovered.
I believe they never existed in any other form than that which we
have seen. The editor, or author, never could shew the original;
nor can it be shewn by any other; to revenge reasonable
incredulity, by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence, with
which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the
last refuge of guilt. It would be easy to shew it if he had it;
but whence could it be had? It is too long to be remembered, and
the language formerly had nothing written. He has doubtless
inserted names that circulate in popular stories, and may have
translated some wandering ballads, if any can be found; and the
names, and some of the images being recollected, make an inaccurate
auditor imagine, by the help of Caledonian bigotry, that he has
formerly heard the whole.
I asked a very learned Minister in Sky, who had used all arts to
make me believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he
believed it himself? but he would not answer. He wished me to be
deceived, for the honour of his country; but would not directly and
formally deceive me. Yet has this man's testimony been publickly
produced, as of one that held Fingal to be the work of Ossian.
It is said, that some men of integrity profess to have heard parts
of it, but they all heard them when they were boys; and it was
never said that any of them could recite six lines. They remember
names, and perhaps some proverbial sentiments; and, having no
distinct ideas, coin a resemblance without an original. The
persuasion of the Scots, however, is far from universal; and in a
question so capable of proof, why should doubt be suffered to
continue? The editor has been heard to say, that part of the poem
was received by him, in the Saxon character. He has then found, by
some peculiar fortune, an unwritten language, written in a
character which the natives probably never beheld.
I have yet supposed no imposture but in the publisher, yet I am far
from certainty, that some translations have not been lately made,
that may now be obtruded as parts of the original work. Credulity
on one part is a strong temptation to deceit on the other,
especially to deceit of which no personal injury is the
consequence, and which flatters the author with his own ingenuity.
The Scots have something to plead for their easy reception of an
improbable fiction; they are seduced by their fondness for their
supposed ancestors. A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist,
who does not love Scotland better than truth: he will always love
it better than inquiry; and if falsehood flatters his vanity, will
not be very diligent to detect it. Neither ought the English to be
much influenced by Scotch authority; for of the past and present
state of the whole Earse nation, the Lowlanders are at least as
ignorant as ourselves. To be ignorant is painful; but it is
dangerous to quiet our uneasiness by the delusive opiate of hasty
persuasion.
But this is the age, in which those who could not read, have been
supposed to write; in which the giants of antiquated romance have
been exhibited as realities.
