For what it
really is, it must be partially praised; and it will remain not only as a
literary curiosity, but as a work of unequal but real merit. It was
greatly admired by Napoleon and Madame de Stael, and, in endeavoring to
consign it to oblivion, the critics are greatly in the wrong.
Macpherson resented any allusion to the forgery, and any leading question
concerning it. He refused, at first, to produce the originals; and when he
did say where they might be found, the world had decided so strongly
against him, that there was no curiosity to examine them. He at last
maintained a sullen silence; and, dying suddenly, in 1796, left no papers
which throw light upon the controversy. The subject is, however, still
agitated. Later writers have endeavored to reverse the decision of his
age, without, however, any decided success. For much information
concerning the Highland poetry, the reader is referred to _A Summer in
Skye_, by Alexander Smith.
OTHER WORKS.--His other principal work was a _Translation of the Iliad of
Homer_ in the Ossianic style, which was received with execration and
contempt.
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