Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

350 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION
than thole of Homer. OfTian defer ibes gliofts
with all the particularity of one who had fcen
and converfed with them, and whofe imagina-
tion was full of the impreffion they had left upon
It. He calls up thofe awful and tremendous
ideas which the
Simulacra modis pallentia mirls,
are fitted to raife in the human mind ; an.!
which, in Shakefpear's ftyle, '* harrow up the
*' foul." Crugal's ghoft, in particular, in the
beginning of the fecond book of Fingal. may
vie with any appearance of this kind, defcribed
by any epic or tragic poet whatever. Mcft
poets would have contented themfelves with tell-
ing us, that he refembled, in every particular,
the living Crugal ; that his form and drefs were
the fame, only his face more pale and fad ; and
that he bore the mark of the wound by which
he fell. But Offian fets before our eyes a fpirit
from the invlfible world, dlRingullhcd by all
thofe features, which a ftroiig auonillied imagi-
nation would give to a ghoil. " A dark-red
** ftream of fire comes down from the hill-
*' Crugal fat upon the beam ; he that lately fell
*' by the kand of Swaran, driving in the battle
** of heroes. His face is like, the beam of the
'• fetting moon. His robes are of the clouds of
** the