Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

150 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION
*' were dark as the tales of other times,
"before the light of the fong arofe." Of-
fian himfelf appears to have been endowed
by nature with an exquifite ieniibility of
hearty prone to that tender melancholy
^vbich is fo often an attendant on great ge-
Filus-, and fufceptible equally of ftrong and
of foft ennotions. He was not only a pro-
feffed bard, educated with care, as we may
eafily believe, to ?.ll the poetical art then
known, and connefted, as he ihows us him-
felf, in intimate fricndihip with the other
contemporary bards, but a warrior alio,
and the Ton of the mofi renowned hero and
prince of his a^e. Thi3 farmed a con-
jundion of circumOances unconimonly fa-
vourable towards exalting the ima,';ination
of a poet. He relates expeditions in which
he had been engaged ; he Ungs of battles,
in which he had fought and overcome j
he had beheld the moll: illuflrious fcenes
which that age could e::hibit, both of he-
Toifra in war, and magnificence in peace.
For, however rude the magnificence of thofe
times may feem to us, we muft remember
that all ideas of magnificence are compara-
tive : and that the age of Fingal was an
aera of diflinguiiihfd fplendour in that part
of the world. Fingal leigned over a con-
iiderable terriloiy j he was enu'ched with
the fpoils of the Roman province j he w.i^
ennobled by his vidlories and great adio^-s^