"If it were indeed possible to shew that this writer was nothing,
it would be another instance of mutability, another blank
made, another void left in the heart, another confirmation of
that feeling which makes him so often complain, 'Roll on, ye
dark brown years, ye bring no joy on your wing to Ossian!'"[10]

There is some justice in Macpherson's wry assertion that
"those who have doubted my veracity have paid a compliment to
my genius."[11] By examining briefly the distinctive form of the
"Fragments," their diction, their setting, their tone, and their
structure, we may sense something of the qualities of the poems
that made them attractive to such men as Gray, Byron, and Hazlitt.



IV

Perhaps Macpherson's most important innovation was to cast
his work into what his contemporaries called "measured prose,"
and it was recognized early that this new form contributed greatly
to their appeal. In discussing the _Fragments_, Ramsey of Ochtertyre
commented,

"Nothing could be more happy or judicious than his translating in
measured prose; for had he attempted it in verse, much of the spirit
of the original would have evaporated, supposing him to have had
talents and industry to perform that very arduous task upon a great
scale. This small publication drew the attention of the literary
world to a new species of poetry."[12]