Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

156 A CRITICAL DISSERTATIOM
derly ; and terminated, for the mod part,
by a perfonal comba:, or wreftling of the
two chiefs j after which, " the bard fung
*' the fong of peace, and the battle ceafed
*' along the field."
The manner of compofitlon bears all the
marks of the greateft antiquity. No artful
tranfitions ; nor full and extended connec-
tion of parts j fuch as we find among the
poets of later times, when order and regu-
larity of compofitlon were more ftudied and
known *, but a flyle always rapid and vehe-
ment J in narration conclte even to abrupt-
nefs, and leaving feveral clrcumftances to
be fupplied by the reader's imagination.
The language has all that figurative caft,
which, as 1 before fiiowed, partly a glow-
ing and undirdpllned imagination, partiv
the (lerility of language, and the want of
proper terms, have always introduced into
the early fpeech of nations*, and, in feveral
refpe£ls, it carries a remarkable refemblance
to the ftyle of the Old Tellament. It de-
ferves particular notice, as one of the moll
genuine and decifive charaflers of antiqui-
ty, that very few general terms, or ablhjcl
ideas, are to be met with in the whole
colle£lion of OfTian's works. The idea?
of men, at firft, were all particular. They
had not words to exprefs general concep-
tions. Thefe were the confequer-r of more
profound refleclion, and lor^er acquaint-