ueen had said he
had some of the poem in the original. I desired him to mention any
passage in the printed book, of which he could repeat the original. He
pointed out one in page 50 of the quarto edition, and read the Erse,
while Mr. Roderick M'Leod and I looked on the English;--and Mr. M'Leod
said, that it was pretty like what Mr. M'Queen had recited. But when Mr.
M'Queen read a description of Cuchullin's sword in Erse, together with a
translation of it in English verse, by Sir James Foulis, Mr. M'Leod
said, that was much more like than Mr. M'Pherson's translation of the
former passage. Mr. M'Queen then repeated in Erse a description of one
of the horses in Cuchillin's car. Mr. M'Leod said, Mr. M'Pherson's
English was nothing like it.

When Dr. Johnson came down, I told him that I had now obtained some
evidence concerning _Fingal_; for that Mr. M'Queen had repeated a
passage in the original Erse, which Mr. M'Pherson's translation was
pretty like; and reminded him that he himself had once said, he did not
require Mr. M'Pherson's _Ossian_ to be more like the original than
Pope's _Homer_. JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir, this is just what I always
maintained. He has found names, and stories, and phrases, nay, passages
in old songs, and with them has blended his own compositions, and so
made what he gives to the world as the translation of an ancient poem.'
If this was the case, I observed, it was wrong to publish it as a poem
in six books. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; and to ascribe it to a time too when
the Highlanders knew nothing of _books_, and nothing of _six_;--or
perhaps were got the length of counting six. We have been told, by
Condamine, of a nation that could count no more than four[668]. This
should be told to Monboddo; it would help him. There is as much charity
in helping a man down-hill, as in helping him up-hill.' BOSWELL. 'I
don't think there is as much charity.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, if his
_tendency_ be downwards. Till he is at the bottom he flounders; get him
once there, and he is quiet. Swift tells, that Stella had a trick, which
she learned from Addison, of encouraging a man in absurdity, instead of
endeavouring to extricate him[669].'

Mr. M'Queen's answers to the inquiries concerning _Ossian_ were so
unsatisfactory, that I could not help observing, that, were he examined
in a court of justice, he would find himself under a necessity of being
more explicit. JOHNSON. 'Sir, he has told Blair a little too much, which
is pub