The friends already mentioned wished to secure all other relics that could be found in the Highlands; and the tutor, then a divinity student, was provided with funds, and undertook his famous journey through the Highlands, where he received MSS., and took down poetry from the recitation of old people. He was first accompanied by Lachlan Macpherson of Strathmashie, a gentleman and a scholar, and also a bard himself, for some time on his tour; he was also joined latterly by Captain Alexander Morrison, who subsequently assisted him. He returned to Badenoch, and remained there till January, 1761, preparing his materials for the next publication, assisted by Macpherson and Morrison. Two Perthshire clergymen were also near him—the Revs. Mr Gallie and James MacLagan, the latter no mean poet himself. By these also he was assisted, and he kept correspondence with them. In 1762 appeared in London, “Fingal,” an epic in six books, along with other sixteen poems. Next year appeared “Temora,” in eight books, and five other poems. “A specimen of the original of ‘Temora,’” the seventh book in Gaelic, was also published in this volume. These _epics_ kindled scepticism in many minds; and the “translator,” smarting under imputations of forgery, as well as filled with vanity at being thought the author of the poems, indulged himself in sullen silence. 2. _Dr Johnson._—The great king who reigned in literary matters in those days was Samuel Johnson, a very worthy man, but full of obstinate prejudices against everything Scotch and Highland. He undertook a journey to the Hebrides purposely to investigate into the Ossianic question; but he came with the absolute belief that Gaelic was never written, and no poems of any consequence existed in that language. Boswell’s journal:—“Dr Johnson proceeded—‘I look upon Macpherson’s “Fingal” to be as gross an imposition as ever the world was troubled with. Had it been really an ancient work ... it would be a curiosity of the first rate.’... “When Dr Johnson came down, I told him ... that Mr MacQueen repeated a passage in the original Erse, which Mr Macpherson’s translation was pretty like; and reminded him that he himself once said he did not require Mr Macpherson’s ‘Ossian’ to be more like the original than Pope’s ‘Homer.’ “Johnson—‘Well, sir, that 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.’ So also thought Laing in his famous and elaborate essay; as well as thousands of others who accepted the dicta of these writers.”