Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

1 82 A CRITICAL DISSERTAIION
of his paft exploits J he is venerable with
the grey locks of age •, he is frequently dif-
pofed to moralile, like an old man, on hu-
man vanity and the profped of death.
There is more art, at lealt more felicity,
in this, than may at firft be imagined. For
youth and old age are the two Hates of hu-
man life capable of beiag placed in the
molt pi61urefque lights. Middle age is
more general and vague ; and has fewev
<circumliances peculiar to the idea of it.
And when any object is in a iituation that
admits it to be rendered particular, and to
be clothed with a variety of circumftances,
it r^ways lland*. out more clear and full in
poetical defcription.
ht fides human perfonages, divine or fu-
pernatural agents are often introduced into
epic poetry ; forming what is called the
machinery of it ; which moft critics hold
fco be an effential part. The marvellous, it
mud be admitted, has always a great charm
for the bulk of readers. It gratifies the
imagination, and aifords room for ftriking
and fublime defcription. No wonder, there-
fore, that all poets {hould have a ftrong
propenfity towards it. But I muft obferve,
that nothing is more difllcult, than to ad-
jufl properly the marvellous with the pro-
t)able. If a poet facrlfice probability, and
pll his work with extravagant fupernatural
(qcnes, he fpreads over it an appearance of