Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

121 CRITICAL nrsSEllTATJON
quiet and repose, which critics require as the
proper termination of the epic work. ' Thus
they passed the night in song, and brought back
the morning with joy. Fingal arose on the
heath ; and shook his gHttering spear in his hand.
He moved first towards the plains of Lena ; an*^'
we followed like a ridge of fire. Spread the
sail, said the king of Morven, and catch the
winds that pour from Lena. We rose on the
waves with songs ; and rushed with joy through
the foam of the ocean.' So much for the
unity and general conduct of the epic action iu
Fingal.
With regard to that property of the subject
which Aristotle requires, that it should be feign-
ed, not historical, he must not be understood
so strictly as if he meant to exclude all subjects
which have any foundation in truth. For such
exclusion would both be unreasonable in itself,
and what is more, would be contrary to the prac-
tice of Homer, who is known to have founded
his Iliad on historical facts concerning the war
of Troy, which was famous throughout all Greece.
Aristotle means no more than that it is the busi-
ness of a poet not to be a mere annalist of facts,
but to embellish truth with beautiful, probable,
and useful fictions : to copy nature as he himself
explains it, like painters, who preserve a likeness,
but exhibit their objects more grand and beauti-
ful than they are in reality. That Ossian has
followed this course, and, building upon true his-
tory, has sufficiently adorned it with poetical fic-
tion for ac-grandizing his characters and facts,
will not, I believe, be questioned by most read-
ers. At the rame time, the foundation which
those facts and characters had in truth, and the
share which the poet had himself in the transac-
t'ons which he records, must be considered as no
small advantage to his work. For truth makes