Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

ON THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 1 57
ance with the arts of thought and of fpeech.
Offian, accordingly, almoll never exprcffes
himfelf m the abilracl. His ideas extend-
ed little farther than to the objedls he faw
around him. A public, a community, the u-
niverfe, were conceptions beyond his fphere.
Even a mountain, a fea, or a lake, which
he has occafion to mention, though only in
a limile, are for the moit part particu-
larized J it is the hill of Cromla, the floini
of the lea of Malraor, or the reeds of the
lake of Lego. A mode of expreflion,
■which, while it is chara61eriflical of an-
cient ages, is at the fame time favourable
to delcriptive poetry. For the fame rea-
fons, perfonification is a poetical figure
not very common with Offian. Inanimate
objeds, fuch as winds, trees, flowers,' he
fometimes perfonifies with great beauty.
Eut the perfonifications which are fo fami-
liar to later poets, of Fame, Time, Terror,
Virtue, and the reft of that clafs, were un-
known to the Celtic bard. I'hefe were
modes of conception too abftracl for his
age.
All thcfe are marks fo undoubted, and
feme of them too fo nice and dtilicate, of
the moft early times, as put the high an-
tiquity of thefe poems out of queftion.
Efpecially when we conilder, that if there
Lad been any impoflure in this cafe, it mull
Vo/. III. o