lations of one or two of these poems, and finding them to be of high and singular beauty, forwarded the manuscripts to Dr. Hugh Blair, Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at Edinburgh University. The latter gentleman was at once deeply interested in the discovery, and pressed Macpherson to furnish translations of the remaining pieces in his possession. This, Dr. Blair has recorded, Macpherson was very unwilling to do, declaring that they were so entirely different from the style of modern poetry as to have little chance of gaining attention, while the fire and force of the original Gaelic must be altogether lost in any translation he might be able to make. These objections, however, were finally overcome, and as a result Dr. Blair published at Edinburgh, in 1760, a small volume entitled, Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse language.
By this publication an intense interest was at once excited among the literati of Edinburgh. Forthwith, at a dinner of the patrons and professors of literature and antiquities in the Scottish metropolis, it was resolved to institute a search for further poetic remains, and a subscription was made for the purpose. Upon enquiry the young schoolmaster was found likely to prove a suitable agent for the enterprise. Born at Kingussie in
