Ossian Collection > Critical dissertation on the poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

ON THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 27
the notions of thefe times, they come as fore-runners of misfortune
or death, to thofe whom they vifit ; fometimes they inform their
friends at a diftance, of their own death -, and fometimes they are
introduced to hei;ihten the fcenery on fome great and folemn occa-
fion. " A hundred oaks burn to the wind j and faint light gleams
" over the heath. The ghofts of Ardven pafs through the beam ;
" and fhew their dim and diftant forms. Comala is half-unfeen on
•' her meteor; and Hidallan is fullen and dim*." " The awful
" faces of other times, looked from the clouds of Crona." -f-
" Fercuth ! I fuv the ghoft of night. Silent he flood on tliat
" bai-.k ; his robe of mift flew on the wind. I could behold his
" tears. An aged man he feemed, and full of thought X-"
The ghofls of flrangers mingle not with thofe of the natives.
" She is feen ; but not like the daughters of the hill. Her robes
" are from the ftrangers land ; and flie is flill alone §." When
the ghoft of one v. horn we had formerly known is introduced, the
propriety of the living charaOer is flill preferved. This is remark-
able in th.e appearance of Calmar's gholl, in the poem entitled
The Death of Cuchullin. He leems to forebode Cuchullin's
death, and to beckon him to his cave. Cuchullin reproaches him
for fuppoiing that he could be intimidated by fuch prognoftics.
" Why dofl thou bend thy daric eyes on me, ghoH: of the car-
" borne Calmar ! Would'll thou frighten me, () Matha's fon !
" from the battles of Cormac ? Thy iiand was not feeble in war;
" neither was thy voice for peace. How art thou changed, chief
" of Lara! if now thou doll advife to tly ! — Retire thou to thy
" cave : Thou art not Calmar's ghofl : He delighted in battle ; and
" his arm was li';e the thunder of heaven." Calmar makes no
return to this feeming reproach : But, " He retired in his biafi:
" with joy ; for he had heard the voice of his praife ||." This is
preclfely the ghoft of Achilles in Homer v who, notwithflanding.
all the diffatiifadlion he expreffes with his flate in the region of the
dead, as foon as he had heard his fon Neoptolemus praiftd for
his gallant behaviour, flrode away with lilent joy to rejoin the rell
tcf the fhades ^.
• P. 97. fP. SS. t P. 123. §P. 1^0.
II P. 155. fl OdyfT. Lib. II.
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