Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

200 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION
thuUIn, Cathmor, and Fingal, he has, how-
ever, fenfibly diftlngulfhcd each of their
characters. CuthuUin is particularly ho-
nourable J Cathmor particularly amiable 5
Fingal wife and great, retaining an afcen-
dant peculiar to himfelf in whatever light
he is viewed.
But the favourite figure in Temora, and
the one mod highly finilhed, is Fillan. His,
charadler is of that fort for which Ofliaa
fliows a particular fondnefs •, an eager, fer-
vent, young warrior, fired with all the im-
patient enthufiafm for military glory, pecu-
liar to that time of life. He had iketched
this ia the delcription of his own fon Of-
car *, but as he extended it more fully in
Fillan, and as the chara6ler is fo confonant
to the epic flrain, though, fo far as I re-
member, not placed in fuch a confpicuous
light by any other epic poet, it may be
worth while to attend a little to Oflian's
management of it in this inflance.
Fillan was the youngefl: of all the fens of
Fingal ; younger, it is plain, than his ne-
phew Ofcar, by whofe fame and great deeds
in war, we may naturally fuppofe his ambi-
tion to have been highly Simulated. With-
al, as he is younger, he is defcribed as
more rafli and fiery. His firfl appearance
is foon after Ofcar's death, when he was
employed to watch the motions of the foe
by night. In a converfation with his bro-