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. If we know little of the ancient
Highlanders, let us not fill the vacuity with Ossian. If we had
not searched the Magellanick regions, let us however forbear to
people them with Patagons.
Having waited some days at Armidel, we were flattered at last with
a wind that promised to convey us to Mull. We went on board a boat
that was taking in kelp, and left the Isle of Sky behind us. We
were doomed to experience, like others, the danger of trusting to
the wind, which blew against us, in a short time, with such
violence, that we, being no seasoned sailors, were willing to call
it a tempest. I was sea-sick and lay down. Mr. Boswell kept the
deck. The master knew not well whither to go; and our difficulties
might perhaps have filled a very pathetick page, had not Mr.
Maclean of Col, who, with every other qualification which insular
life requires, is a very active and skilful mariner, piloted us
safe into his own harbour.
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