The
thought of the great lexicographer riding rough-shod over the poor
mountain songs which he loved, and the fame which he had already
acquired, deterred and dissuaded him, if he had ever any such
intention, until the opportunity was past.
MacPherson feared English public opinion, and fearing lied. He
declared that to be a translation which was original work, thus
relegating himself for ever to a dubious renown, and depriving his
country of the honest fame of having preserved through centuries,
by mere oral transmission, a portion, at least, of the antique
Irish literature. To the magnanimity of his own heroes he could not
attain:--
"Oscar, Oscar, who feared not armies--
Oscar, who never lied."
Of some such error as MacPherson's I have myself, with less excuse,
been guilty, in chapters xi. and xii., Vol. I., where I attempt to
give some conception of the character of the Ossianic cycle. The
age and the heroes around whom that cycle revolves have, in the
history of Ireland, a definite position in time; their battles,
characters, several achievements, relationships, and pedigrees;
their Duns, and trysting-places, and tombs; their wives, musicians,
and bards; their tributes, and sufferings, and triumphs; their
internecine and other wars--are all fully and clearly described in
the Ossianic cycle. They still remain demanding adequate treatment,
when we arrive at the age of Conn [Note: See page 20.], Art, and
Cormac, kings of Tara in the second and third centuries of the
Christian era.
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