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

44 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION
The whole train of ideas is admirably fuited to the fubjedl:. Every
thing is full of that invifible world, into which the aged Bard be-
lieves himfdlf no\v ready to enter. The airy hall of Fingal prcfents
itfclf to his view j " he fees the cloud that ihal! receive his ghoft ;
" he beholds the mift that fliall form his robe when he appears on-
" his hill ;" and all the natural objefts around him feem to carry
the prefages of death. " The thiftle fliakes its beard to the wind..
" The flower hang> its heavy head — it feems to fay, I am covered
" with the drops of heaven ; the time of my departure is near,
" and the blaft that fliall fcatter my leaves." Malvina's deaith is
hinted to him in the moft delicate manner by the fon of Alpin.
His lamentation over her, her apotheofis, or afcent to the habitation
of heroes, and the introdudion to the ftory which follows from the
mention which Ofiian fuppofes the father of Malvina to make of
him in the hall of Fingal, are all in the higheft fpirit of Poetry.
*' And doft thou remember Offian, O Tofcar fon of Comloch ?
" The battles of our youth were many ; our fwords went together
" to the field." Nothing could be more proper than to end his
fongs with recording an exploit of the father oi' that Malvina, of
whom his heart was now fo full ; and wiio, from firft to laft, had.
been fuch a favourite objedt throughout all his poems.
But as a feparate difcuflion of the merit of each of the poems in
this coUcdlion would lead us too far, I flaall content myfelf with
making fome obfervations on the chief beauties of our author under
the general heads of Defcription, Imagery, and Sentiment.
A poet of original genius is always diflinguiflied by his talent
for -defcription -f. A fecond rate writer difcerns nothing new or pe-
culiar in the objedl he means to defcribe. His conceptions of it are
vague and loofe ; his expreflions feeble ; and of courfe the objeft is
prefented to us indiftindlly and as through a cloud. But a true
Poet makes us imagine that we fee it before our eyes : he catches
the dillinguifliing f<:atures ; he gives it the colours of life and reality j
he places it in luch a light that a painter could copy after him.
This happy talent is chiefly owing to a lively imagination, which
t Seethe rules of poeiical defcription excellently illuflrated by lord Kaim?, in his
Elements of Ciitici:hi, vol. lii. chap. 21. Of n.irration and defcription.
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