Altnacraig, Oban, September 20, 1875.
SIR,--In the last number of _The Gaedheal_, a Gaelic periodical which
may be known to some of your readers, I inserted a translation from the
German of an essay on the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossian, appended
to a poetical translation of Fingal by Dr August Ebrard, Leipsic, 1868.
My object in doing this was to give Highlanders ignorant of German, as
most of them unhappily are, an opportunity of hearing what a learned
German had to say on the character of the most famous, though in my
opinion far from the best, book in their language. I did not in the
slightest degree mean to indicate my own views as to this vexed
question. I know too well the philological conditions on which the
solution of such a question depends to hazard any opinion at all upon
the subject in the present condition of my Celtic studies. I am happy,
however, to find that one good result has followed from the publication
of this translation--a translation which, by the way, only revised by
me, but made by a young lady of great intellectual promise--viz., the
receipt of a letter from the greatest living authority on the Ossianic
question, I mean John Campbell of Islay, traveller, geologist, and good
fellow of the first quality. This letter, which I enclose, the learned
writer authorises me to print, with your permission, in your columns;
and I feel convinced you have seldom had a more valuable literary
communication.--I am, &c.,