In 1778, Mr William Shaw published an Analysis of the Gaelic language. He quoted specimens of Gaelic poetry, and harangued on its beauties.... A few months ago, he printed a pamphlet. He traduced decent characters. He denied the existence of Gaelic poetry, and his name was echoed in the newspapers as a miracle of candour. Is there in the annals of Grubaean impudence any parallel to this?... This incomparable bookbuilder, who writes a dictionary before he can write grammar, had previously boasted what a harvest he would reap from English credulity. He was not deceived. The bait was caught.... Mr Shaw wants only money.... But better things might have been expected from the moral and majestic author of the Rambler. He must have seen the Analysis of the Gaelic language, for Shaw mentions him as the patron of that work. He must have seen the specimens of Celtic poetry there inserted. That he is likewise the patron of this poor scribble, no man, I suppose, will offer to deny. From this single circumstance, Dr Johnson stands convicted of _an illiberal intention to deceive_. Candour can hardly hesitate to sum up his character in the vulgar but expressive pollysyllable [pp. 86-87]. Readily available facts support some of the central assertions in this rather heated description of the inception of the _Deformities_. Specifically, as readers of Boswell's _Life_ may recall, Johnson must be considered a--if not the--principal patron of the Scotsman William Shaw's _Analysis of the Gaelic Language_: he wrote the official proposals for the work, he solicited subscribers to it, and he received from the grateful author a public acknowledgement (in the "Introduction") that "To the advice and encouragement of Dr. Johnson, the friend of letters and humanity, the public is indebted for these sheets."[13] It is probable, too, that he examined the book at least cursorily[14] and that in doing so he caught sight of one or more of the references to Ossian's poetry, perhaps including the "specimen" on pages 145-149. Moreover, in the pamphlet Callender mentions, entitled _An Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems Ascribed to Ossian_ (1781), Shaw, setting out to demolish the arguments favoring the ostensible origins of the purported translations, accords (p. 2) Johnson pride of place in starting "objections" to the poems and quotes (pp. 6-12) approvingly first a lengthy passage from _A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_ (1775) and then Johnson's famous letter to James Macpherson. In addition, Boswell records Johnson's later assistance to Shaw in composing a reply to John Clark's pro-Ossian _Answer to Mr. Shaw's Inquiry_ (1781).[15] But to admit all this is scarcely to "convict" Johnson of a deliberate "_intention to deceive_." On the contrary, since by 1778 his scepticism regarding the Ossianic writings