JAMES, the translator of Ossian, was born at Kingussie, in the county of Inverness, in 1738. He received his school education at Inverness, and afterwards studied at King's College, Aberdeen. In 1758, while schoolmaster of his native village, he published his Highlander, a heavy poem in six cantos, which met with no success. On becoming tutor afterwards to the son of Graham of Balgowan, he met Home, the author of Douglas, at Moffat, to whom he showed certain verses claiming to be translations of old Gaelic poetry. By the kindness of Home these pieces were submitted to the perusal of Dr Blair, and having elicited the admiration of that critic, were published in 1760, under the title of Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse Language. This performance rendered Macpherson exceedingly popular, and gained for him the patronage of such men as Hume and Dr Robertson. So keenly had this specimen of old Celtic literature excited the public curiosity, that money was subscribed to enable Macpherson to rescue what fragments of traditionary poetry yet lingered among the Scottish Highlands. Accordingly he set out, and after exploring the mainland and the isles, published as the result of his tour, Fingal; an Ancient Epic Poem, in six books, with several other Poems, by Ossian, the son of Fingal, 4to, 1762; and Temora, in eight books, with other Poems, by Ossian, 4to, 1763. These works were read with avidity, were translated into several European languages, and materially increased both the wealth and the fame of Macpherson. Yet even at this early period the enjoyment of his good fortune began to be disturbed by that controversy regarding the authenticity of Ossian which remains unsettled even at this present day. In 1794 he accompanied Governor Johnstone as his private secretary to Pensacola; and after resigning this situation, and holding official appointments at Florida and the West Indies, he returned to England in 1766. Settling down in London, and resuming his literary pursuits, he produced, in 1771, An Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, 4to. The wound which the publication of this work inflicted upon the fame of the author was by no means healed by the prose translation of Homer's Iliad, which he produced in 1773. In 1775 he published The History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover, in 2 vols. 4to. Appointed soon after this to defend the proceedings of the government towards America, he wrote a pamphlet entitled The Rights of Great Britain Asserted against the Claims of the Colonies, 8vo, 1776. In 1779 he produced his Short History of the Opposition during the last Session of Parliament, a work which so favourably impressed the public that they generally ascribed it to Gibbon. On his appointment soon afterwards to the lucrative office of agent to the Nawab of Arcot, Macpherson began to ply his facile pen in the treatment of Indian affairs. In his official capacity he sat in parliament as member for Camelford during several years, but never spoke in the house. Towards the close of his life, his declining health induced him to remove to Belleville, a seat which he had bought in his native Strathspey. He died there on the 17th February 1796. In accordance with his own re- quest, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, and a monument was erected to his memory on a conspicuous site within his own grounds.

It is now generally agreed that Macpherson caught the spirit of his Ossianic poetry from the tales of the old Celtic bards, but often supplied lacunae in the work from his own invention. To him, therefore, we must ascribe many of the weird images and flowing sentences which sometimes characterize it, as well as the pointless verbiage and false description that often render it irksome.