That Macpherson chose to call his poems "fragments" is indicative
of another quality that made them unusual in their day.
The poems have a spontaneity that is suggested by the fact that
the poets seem to be creating their songs as the direct reflection
of an emotional experience. In contrast to the image of the poet
as the orderer, the craftsman, the poets of the _Fragments_ have a
kind of artlessness (to us a very studied one, to be sure) that gave
them an aura of sincerity and honesty. The poems are fragmentary
in the sense that they do not follow any orderly, rational plan but
seem to take the form that corresponds to the development of an
emotional experience. As Macpherson told Blair they are very
different from "modern, connected, and polished poetry."



V

The _Fragments_ proved an immediate success and Macpherson's
Edinburgh patrons moved swiftly to raise enough money to enable
the young Highlander to resign his position as tutor and to devote
himself to collecting and translating the Gaelic poetry still extant
in the Highlands. Blair recalled that he and Lord Elibank were instrumental
in convening a dinner meeting that was attended by "many of the first
persons of rank and taste in Edinburgh," including Robertson, Home, and
Fergusson.[17] Robert Chalmers acted as treasurer; among the forty odd
subscribers who contributed 60L, were James Boswell and David Hume.[18]
By the time of the second edition of the _Fragments_ (also in 1760),
Blair, or more likely Macpherson himself, could inform the public in the
"Advertisement" "that measures are now taken for making a full collection