The Celtic magazine. A monthly periodical devoted to the literature ...

THE CELTICMAGAZINE.1^0. II. DECEMBER 1875.THE STATE OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY.In controversy about Ossian, the man on the affirmative side lias animmeasurable advantage over all others ; and, with an average practicalacquaintance with the subject, may exhaust any antagonist. The contents,the connection, and the details ; the origin, the tradition, the translation ;the poetry, the sentiment, the style ; the history, the characters, thedramatis personcfi ; the aspects of nature represented, the customs andmanners of the people ; the conflicting nationalities introduced, the eventfulissues, the romantic incidents; the probable scenes, the subsequentchanges ; the phLlosoj)hy and the facts, and multiplied revelations ofhumanity—all these, and many more such themes inseparably connectedwith Ossian, if a man rightly understands and believes in them, wouldenable him to maintain his position in actual controversy, with integrityand ease, for a twelvemonth. The man, on the other hand, Avho does notbelieve in the authenticity of Ossian must forego all these advantages insuccession, and wQl reduce himself to straits in an hour. He dare notexpatiate or admire, or love, or eulogise, cr trust, or credit, or contemi^late, orsympathise with anything ; or admit a fact, or listen to a word, or lookat an argument, on the perd of immediate discomfiture. He must simplyshut the book. His only stronghold is denial; his sole logic is assertion;his best rhetoric is abuse ; his uUima ratio is to create distrust, and toinvolve both himself and everybody else in confusion. Genius, forexample, he declares without hesitation to be trickery ;poetry to bebombast ;pathos, monotonous moaning ; the tenderest human love to bosham; the most interesting natural hicidents, contemptible inventions;the plainest statistical information, a deliberate act of theft ; the sublimestconceptions of human character, a fudge ; the details of human historyfor three hundred years, a melodramatic, incredible fiction; and whatcannot now be found anywhere else recorded, a dream ; accidentalcoincidence he speaks of as detected dishonesty ; imaginary resemblance,as guilty adaptation; a style suitable to the subject, as plagiarism;occasional inspiration he caUs a lie ; translation, a forgery ; and the whole,if not a " magnificent mystification," then, in Procurator-Fiscal phrase, a" wUful falsehood^ fraud, and imposition." But all this, without proofand nothing like proof is ever advanced—may be said in an hour, and theargument would remain as it is. Such, in point of fact, has been theD