SOURCE: "Section I.," in Essay on the Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian, Peter Hill, Archibald Constable and Co., 1807, pp. 2-15.

In the following essay, Richardson answers some objections previously raised regarding the authenticity of Ossian, and asserts that there is no internal evidence which invalidates the authenticity of the poems.

The period which has been generally assigned as the æra of Ossian, is the beginning of the third century. It is admitted, that this deduction can be made only from the internal evidence of the poems which have been ascribed to him. In a case like this, we can expect no collateral evidence from the contemporary writers of Greece and Rome, to whom the language of the Caledonians was unknown, and by whom they themselves were accounted barbarous.

I am therefore disposed to consider, in the same light that Mr Laing does, the attempt which has been...