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.
