J. F. Campbell Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

150 REPORT ON THE
of the poems, indeed, particularly thofe of an in-
ferior and more corrupted clafs, fpeak of the fpoil
to be acquired by the conquerors ; but it feems to
have been more a mark of fuperiority, or an ac-
knowledgment of fubjeftion, than the fruit of pil-
lage ; and inhumanity to the conquered and the
captive is never fuppofed to be a legitimate ufe of
vi£lory.
In confidering this matter, the Committee begs
leave alfo to fuggeft, that fome allowance ought al-
ways to be made for the colouring of poetry, on the
manners and fentiments of the heroic perfons of
whom it fpeaks. If Offian, or whoever he^was who
compofed the poems in queftion, had that humanity
and tendernefs which are fo generally the attendants
on genius, he might, though he could not create
manners of which there was no archetype in life,
transfufe into his poetical narrative a portion of ima-
ginary delicacy and gentlenefs, which, while it flat-
ters the feelings of the poet himfelf, gives at the
fame time a dignity, a grace, and an intereft to his
pidure.
On