Ossian Collection > Morison's edition of the Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

348 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON
mind is difpofed to relifh them ; and not in the midft of
fome fevere and agitating paffion, which cannot admit this
play of fancy ; that they be founded on a refemblance nei •
ther too near and obvious, fo as to give little amufement
to the imagination in tracing it, nor too faint and remote'
fo as to be apprehended with difficulty ; that they fene ei-
ther to illuftrate the principal objed, and to render the con-
ception of it, more clear and diftinft ; or at leaft, to height-
en and embellifli it, by a fuitable affociation of images*.
Every countiy has a fceriery peculiar to itfelf ; and the
imagery of a good poet will exhibit it. Per as he copies af-
ter nature, his allufions will of courfe be taken from thofe
objeds which he fees around him, and which have often
llruck his fancy; For this reafon, in order to judge of the
propriety df poetical imag:ery, we ought to be, in fome
meafure, acquainted with the natural hiflory of the coun-
try where the fcene of the poem is laid. The introdudtion
of foreign images betrays a poet, copying not from nature,
but from other writers. Herice fo many Lions, and Ty-
gers, and Eagles, and Serpents, which we meet with in the
fimilies of modern poets ; as if thefe animals had acquired
fome right to a place in poetical comparifons for ever, be-
caufe employed by ancient authors. They employed them
with propriety,' as objects generally kn6wn in their country ;
but as they are. abfurdly ufed for illuftration by us, who
know them only at fecond hand. Or by defcription. To
moft readers of modern poetry, it were more to the purpofe
to defcribe Lions or Tygers by fimilies taken from men,
than to compare men to Lions. Oflian is very correft in
this particular. His imagery is, without exception, copied
from that face of nature, which he faw before his eyes ;
and by confequence may be expeded to be lively. We
meet
* See Elements of Criticifm, vol. 3. ch, 19.