Celtic mss. in Relation to the Macpherson Fraud With a Review of Professor Freeman's Criticism of The Viking Age by the Author of Celticism a Myth
9781465674302
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
My attention was lately directed to a lengthy article that appeared in The Scotsman of the 12th of last November, bearing the initials of Mr. Mackinnon, Professor of Celtic at the University of Edinburgh, to whom I sent a copy of my book, Celticism a Myth, then just issued from the press. The article begins with a tribute to the assiduity of the Historiographer Royal in the cause of Celtic literature; but is plainly intended as a refutation of my statement to the effect that “It is no longer pretended that any Gaelic poetry has been preserved in early manuscripts,” &c. In citing the remark of Dr. Irving it was certainly not my intention to call down an exhibition of Professor Mackinnon’s Celtic wares—of the authenticity and character of which I am profoundly ignorant—but simply to express my conviction that the alleged manuscript documents of which Macpherson professed to give a translation did not exist. De non existentibus et non apparentibus Dr. Johnson says, eadem est ratio. There are unfortunately now no Doctor Johnsons, or Pinkertons or John Hill Burtons to deal with these possible inventions or forgeries of a later age, the perhaps “other evidences” of what the great lexicographer characterised as “Scotch conspiracy in national falsehood.” Ample time and opportunity has been afforded since 1762—the date when Macpherson first gave to the world his Ossian the Son of Fingal—to fabricate missing documents or supply others of more startling character. A pungent criticism from the pen of Mr. Hill Burton, or a crushing commentary by either of the other named critics, would probably have relegated these so-called Celtic MSS.—some of them at least—to the nothingness whence they came. It is clear that what Professor Mackinnon brings forward is not evidence, certainly not such as would be accepted in a Court of Law. There is no substantiation of the Macpherson manuscripts save the statements, and what I fear must be regarded as the fabrications, of a number of interested individuals retailed at second-hand, none of all whom can be accepted as unprejudiced witnesses. After the strictest search for the originals of Ossian, Dr. Johnson came to the conclusion that as regards Scotland and the pretensions of James Macpherson, there was not in existence “an Erse manuscript a hundred years old.” Any attempt therefore, in our day to bring into agreement this literary imposture with the difficulties which stultify all conception of its genuineness is foredoomed to failure. If, as Mr. Mackinnon alleges, it be “perfectly established” that Macpherson carried away from the North-West Highlands several Gaelic manuscripts it is equally certain he never exhibited them to anyone capable of forming a judgment as to their authenticity. “The collection proper,” it would appear, “consists of sixty-three separate parcels.” How many of these are genuine we shall probably never know.
