A Will and a Way

The Publisher Of This Book Utilises Modern Printing Technologies As Well As Photocopying Processes For Reprinting And Preserving Rare Works Of Literature That Are Out-Of-Print Or On The Verge Of Becoming Lost. This Book Is One Such Reprint. Purchase Of This Book Includes Free Trial Access To Www.Million-Books.Com Where You Can Read More Than A Million Books For Free. This Is An Ocr Edition With Typos. Excerpt From Book: On The Ossianic Controversy. By The Hon. Lord Neaves. Read At The Meeting Of The Historical Section Meeting Of The Institute In Edinbdrgh Jult 24 1856. I Have Been Requested To Prepare A Memoir On The Ossianic Question And I Have Agreed To Do So Though With Considerable Diffidence As I Feel That I Possess Few Qualifications For The Task Except A Desire To Treat It Impartially. I Cannot Boast Of Any Knowledge Of The Celtic Languages ; But Possibly Some May Think That A Knowledge Of Celtic And An Absence Of Partiality Are Incompatible Things. The Principal Considerations To Which I Propose To Call Attention Arise Out Of A Highland Ms. Which Although Known For Many Years Has Only Lately Been Examined In A Satisfactory Manner. In Order To Understand The Bearings Of This Evidence It Will Be Necessary To Resume In A General Way The History And Nature Of The Controversy. Some Of My Hearers Will Remember When It Raged In Full Fury While To The Younger Part Of Them It Will Sound Like Some Of The Songs To Which It Relates Telling Of Old Unhappy Far Off Things And Battles Long Ago. In 1760 James Macpherson Published His Fragments Of Ancient Poetry Collected In The Highlands Of Scotland And Translated From The Gaelic Or Erse Language A Work Of Small Bulk Consisting Only Of Seventy Pages Of Diminutive Quarto But Destined To Exert A Powerful And Permanent Influence Upon British And European Literature. The Nature Of This Announcement Implied That The Contents Of The Book Were Not To Be Found In Any Perfect State In An O