Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

IIS CaiTICAL DISSERTATION'
posed in verse a regular story, founded on he-
roic actions, which all posterity admired. Aris-
totle, with great sagacity and penetration, trac-
ed the causes of this general admiration. He
observed what it was in Homer's composition,
and in the conduct of his story, which gave it
such power to please ; from this observation he
deduced the rules which poets ought to follow,
who would write and please like Homer ; and
to a composition formed according to such rules,
he gave the name of an epic poem. Hence his
whole system arose. Aristotle studied nature
in Homer. Homer and Ossian both wrote
from nature. No wonder that among all the
three, there should be such agreement and con-
formity.
The fundamental rules delivered by Aristotle,
concerning an epic poem are these : That the
action, which is the ground-work of the poem,
should be one, complete, and great ; that it
should be feigned, not merely historical ; that
it should be enlivened with characters and man-
ners, and heightened by the marvellous.
But, before entering on any of these, it may
perhaps be asked, what is the moral of Fingal ?
For, according to M. Bossu, an epic poem is no
other than an allegory contrived to illustrate
some moral truth. The poet, says this critic,
must begin with fixing on some maxim or in-
struction, which he intends to inculcate on man-
kind. He next forms a fable, like one of ^Slsop's,
wholly with a view to the moral ; and having
thus settled and arranged his plan, he then looks
into traditionary history for names and incidents,
to give ills fable some air of probability. Never
did a more frigid, pedantic notion enter into the
mind of a critic. We may safely pronounce,
that he who should compose an epic poem after
this manner, who should first lay down a moral