undertaking."

Since Blair became famous for his _Critical Dissertation on the
Poems of Ossian_ (London, 1763), it may seem strange that in the
Preface to the _Fragments_ he declined to say anything of the "poetical
merit" of the collection. The frank adulation of the longer
essay, which concludes with the brave assertion that Ossian may
be placed "among those whose works are to last for ages,"[7] was
partially a reflection of the enthusiasm that greeted each of
Macpherson's successive publications.



III

Part of the appeal of the _Fragments_ was obviously based on
the presumption that they were, as Blair hastened to assure the
reader, "genuine remains of ancient Scottish poetry," and therefore
provided a remarkable insight into a remote, primitive culture; here
were maidens and warriors who lived in antiquity on the harsh,
wind-swept wastes of the Highlands, but they were capable of
highly refined and sensitive expressions of grief--they were the
noblest savages of them all. For some readers the rumors of imposture
served to dampen their initial enthusiasm, and such was
the case with Hume, Walpole, and Boswell, but many of the admirers
of the poems found them rapturous, authentic or not.

After Gray had read several of the "Fragments" in manuscript
he wrote to Thomas Warton that he had "gone mad about them"; he
added,