cal judgment, which he undoubtedly pos sessed. Besides the poem recited by Kerr, I have also to mention a short poem, undoubtedly ancient, transmitted to me by Professor Richardson, who had it from Mr Samuel Cameron, lately a student at the University of Glasgow, by whom it was taken down, in writing, from a Highlander, who had it by tradition. It begins, "A mhic mo mhic, 's'e thubhairt an righ This poem appears, also, to constitute the original of a passage that occurs in the third book of Fingal, and translated by Mr Macpherson; *-and I mention this poem, for the purpose of shewing, that here he has shewn himself to be the mere translator, by the undeniable fact, that he has trans * It occurs in the Perth Collection, p. 34. The original of one passage, in lated ill. "Chuir iad gach cath le buaidh, "Is bhuanich iad cliu s gach teagmhail: "Is mairridh an iomradh san dán, “Air chuimhn aig na baird an deigh sho.” These lines, literally translated, are as fol lows: 66 They fought every battle with success, « Their fame shall remain in the song,-- They are thus translated by Mr Macpherson:" They fought the battle in their youth; they are in the song of bards." It were needless, here, to point out the injustice done to the original. One other instance will suffice. We have, in the original, these beautiful lines; "Bimar bhuinne-shruth, reothairt geamhraidh, "Ach mar fhann-ghaoth sheimh, thlà shamhruidh, "Bi dhoibhsin a shireas do chobhar." This is, literally, "Be like the torrent of a winter's tide, "To contend with the foes of the Fingallians; "Be to those that seek thy aid."* Which Mr Macpherson translates thus:"Be thou a stream of many tides, against "the foes of thy people; but, like the gale “that moves the grass, to those who ask thy aid." It is evident, that, in the original, there is nothing of "moving the grass;" and Mr Macpherson has lost the beauty arising from the contrast of the "winter's torrent," and the "summer's breeze." * In the above-cited stanzas, the reader will remark, in every couplet, the parallelism, or balancing, of the verses, which has been so well illustrated by Dr Lowth, in his Treatise De Poesi Hebreorum. It is probably the character of all early poetry. In this, as in innumerable instances, which shall be afterwards adduced, we may clearly recognize the translator, and shall find it necessary to refer the original to another source. PART II. The unaltered State of the Language, in which these Poems have been composed.-The peculiar character and idiomatic Form of the Gaelic. THE languages of modern Europe, with which we are conversant, have been evidently formed on the model of the Latin; whilst this again appears to have borrowed its form and structure from the Greek, which was familiar to the poets and orators of Rome: and, it is even probable, that the Greek itself derived many of its terms and modes of expression from the Egyptians, and other Oriental nations, with whom the Greeks, at an early period, had frequent intercourse. We may accordingly trace, in all the modern languages of Europe, not only G |