SOURCE: "The Fugitives from the Happy Valley," in The Peace of the Augustans: A Survey of Eighteenth-Century Literature as a Place of Rest and Refreshment, G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1916, pp. 281-328.

In the following excerpt, Saintsbury argues that although Macpherson's Ossian was a fraud, Macpherson nevertheless succeeded in portraying Highland local color effectively and originally.

… [It may be] difficult to get the modern reader to tackle Ossian. … But few people can be unaware that no such difficulty was felt by original readers of that singular compilation, which, if not real poetry itself, inspired poetry in two generations at least (the second of these being one of the most poetical in the world's history), and spread its influence all over Europe. What seems necessary on the controversial side—and that is but little—may be said below;¹ we must here take Ossian simply at its "face-value," though that...