SOURCE: "Ossian: Success or Failure for the Scottish Enlightenment?" in Aberdeen and the Enlightenment: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Aberdeen, edited by Jennifer J. Carter and Joan H. Pittock, Aberdeen University Press, 1987, pp. 344-49.

In the following essay, originally delivered as a lecture in 1986, Colgan traces some of the contemporary influences on Macpherson's poetic vision and argues that Scottish intellectual culture bears at least some responsibility for his literary deceptions.

Literary historians do not find it difficult to explain the European-wide interest in James Macpherson's 'translations' from the Gaelic of the ancient bard, Ossian. The Enlightenment, still very interested in the classical world, did not want to be confined to it. Non-classical cultures offered varieties of literary diet and alternative insights into human nature and society: they were part of the expanding consciousness of the age. Primitive cultures appeared to have most to offer...