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18 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.THE OSSIANIC QUESTION.Altnacraig, Oban, September 20, 1875.Sir,—In the last number of Tlie Gaedheal, a Gaelic periodical whichmay be known to some of your readers, I inserted a translation from theGerman of an essay on the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossian, appendedto a poetical translation of Fingal by Dr August Ebrard, Leipsic, 1868.My object in doing this was to give Highlanders ignorant of German, asmost of them unhappily are, an opportunity of hearing what a learnedGerman had to say on the character of the most famous, though in myopinion far from the best, book in their language.I did not in the slightestdegree mean to indicate my own views as to this vexed question. IknoAV too well the philological conditions on which the solution of such aquestion depends to hazard any opinion at all upon the subject in the presentcondition of my Celtic studies. I am happy, however, to find thatone f^ood residt has followed from the publication of this translation—translation which, by the way, only revised by me, but made by a younglady of great iiateUectual promise— viz., the receipt of a letter from thegreatest living authority on the Ossianic question, I mean John Campbell.of Islay, traveller, geologist, and good fellow of the first quality. Thisletter, which I enclose, the learned writer authorises me to print, with yourpermission, in your columns ; and I feel convinced you have seldom hada more valuable literary communication.—I am, &c.,John S. Blackie.Conan House, Dingwall, September, 1875.My Dear Professor Blackie,—In the last number of Tlie Gael I finda translation by you from a German essay, and a quotation from a Germanwriter who calls Alacpherson's Ossian " the most magnificent mystificationof modern times." The mists which surround this question need the lightof knowledge to shine from the sitter on that rising Gaelic chair whichyou have done so much to uplift. In the meantime let me tell you threefacts. On the 9th December 1872, I found out that Jerome Stone'sGaelic collection had been purchased by Mr Laing of the Signet Library,and that he had lent the manuscript to Mr Clerk of Kibnallie. On the25th November 1872, I found a list of contents and three of the songs inthe Advocates' Library, but too late to print them. The learned Germanrelied on Stone's missing manuscript as proof of the antiquity of Macpherson'sOssian, because it was of older date. It contains versions of tenheroic ballads, of which I had printed many versions in " Leabhar naFeinne." There is not one line of the Gaelic printed in 1807 in those