Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

31 8 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION
dows clapping, the herds of goats and cowij
feeking flielter, tlie Ihepheid wandering, corn
on the plain, and the wakeful hind rebuilding
the iTiocks of corn which had been overturned
by the tempeft. Whereas m Offian's works,
from beginning to end, all is confiftent ; no
modern allufion drops from him ; but every-
where, the fame face of rude fiature appears ; a
country wholly uncultivated, thinly inhabited,
and recently peopled. The grafs of the rock,
the flowcT of the heath, the thiftle with its beard,
are the chief ornaments of his landfcapes. " The
*' defart," fays Fingal, " Is enough to mc, with
*' all Its woods and deer."
The circle of ideas and tranfa6\ions, Is no
vider than fuits fuch an age : Nor any greater
diverfity introduced into characflcrs, than the
events of that period would naturally difplay.
Valour and bodily ftrength are the admired qua-
lities. Contentions arife, as Is ufual among
favage nations, from the fllghteft caufes. To
be affronted at a tournament, or to be omitted
in the invitation to a feaft, kindles a war. Wo-
men are often carried away by force ; and the
whole tribe, as in the Homeric times, rife to
avenge the wrong. The heroes fhow refinement
of fentlment indeed rn fevcral occafions, but
none of manners. They fpcak of their paft
adions