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

ON THE POEMS OF O S S I A N. 49
But OHian's genius, -though chiefly turned towards the fublime
and pathetic, was not confined to it : In fuhjefts alfo (;f grace and
dijUcacv, he difcovcrs the hand of a mafter. Take for an example
the following elegant defcriptibn of Agandecca, wherein the ten-
dernefs of TibuUns feems united with the majefty of Virgil.
" The daughter of the fnow overheard, and left the hall of her
" fccret figh. She came in all her beauty; like the moon from
" the cloud of the Eall:. Lovclinefs was aromd her as light. Her
" fteps were like the mufic of fongs. Shefaw the youth and loved
" him. He was the ftolen figh of her foul. Her blue eyes rolled
" on him in fecret : i\.nd llie bleft the chief of Morven -{-." Se-
veral other inftances might be produced of the feelings of love
and friendJliip painted by our author with a inoft natural and
happy delicacy.
The fimplicity of Olhan's manner adds great beauty to his de-
fcriptions, and indeed to his vvhole Poetry, We meet with no af-
fedled ornaments ; no forced refinement ; no marks either in flyle
or thought of a ftudied endeavour to Ihine and fparkle. Olhan
appears every where to be prompted by his feelings ; and to fpeak
from the abundance of his heart. I remember no more than one
inftance of what'" can be called quaint thought in this whole col-
ledlion of his works. It is in the firil: book of Fingal, where from
the tombs of two lovers two lonely yews are mentioned to have
fprung, " whcfs branches wiflied to meet on high J." This fym-
pathy of the trees with the lovers, may be reckoned to border on
an Italian conceit ; and it is fomewhat curious to find this fingle
inftance ot that fort of wit in our Celtic poetry.
The " joy of grief, " is one of Oflian's peculiar expreflicns, fe-
veral times repeated. If any one fliall think that it needs to be
juflified by a precedent, he may find it twice ufed by Homer; in
the Iliad, when Achilles is vifited by the ghoft of Patroclus ; and in
the Odyffey, when Ulyfl"es meets his mother in the fhades. On
both thefe occafions, the heroes, melted with tendernefs, lament
their not having it in their power to throw their arms round the
+ P. 37- tP. 18.
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