Why is not the original deposited in some public library, instead of exhibiting attestations of its existence? Suppose there were a question in a cou… - James Macpherson

With a genius truly poetical, he [Macpherson] was one of the first literary impostors in modern times.

These pieces have been and will, I think, during my life, continue to be to me the sources of daily and exalted pleasures. The tender and the sublime emotions of the mind were never before so wrought up by the human hand. I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the North the greatest poet that has ever existed. Merely for the pleasure of reading his works, I am become desirous of learning the language in which he sung, and of possessing his songs in their original form.

One is tempted to call them works of genius; they are quite Homeric in their internal unity, purity of phrasing, clear, ringing music of language and dramatic coloring.