Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

184 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION
Iliad, mingled with popular legends con*
cerning the intervention of the g'ds ; and
he adopted thefe, becaufe they amuled the
fancy. OiTian, in liK-e manner, tuund the
tales of his country full of gholts and fpi*
rits : It is likely he believed them himfelf j
and he introduced them, becaufe they gave
his poems that lolemn and marvellous caft
which fuited his genius. This was the only
machinery he could employ with propriety j
becaufe it was the only intervention of fu-
pernatural beings which agreed with the
common belief of the country. It was
happy ; becaufe it did not interfere in the
Jeaft with the proper difplay of human cha-
racters and aftionb ; becaufe it had lefs of
the incredible than moft other kinds of
poetical machinery j and becaufe it ferved
to diverfify the fctnc, and to heighten the
fubjefl by an awful grandeur, which is the
great defign of machinery.
As OiTian's mythology is peculiar to him-
felf, and makes a confidergble figure in his
other poemq, as well as in Fingdl, it may
be proper to make fome obfervations on it,
independent of its lubferviency to epic
compofuion. It turns, for the moft part,
on the a, pearances of departed ipirits.
Th-fe, confonantly to the notions of every
lude age, are reprefented not as purely im-
jnaterial, but as thin airy forms, which can
fee vifible or invifible at pleafure ; their