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

2SO ■ A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON
quaintance with them was flender, as they were little lub-
jedted'to the ufes of man.
The great objedion made to OflTjan's imagery, is its uni-
formity, and the too frequent repetition of the fame com-
parifons. In a work fo thick fovvn with fimilies, one could
not but exped to find images of the fame kind fometimes
fuggefted to the poet by refembling ohjedts ; efpeciaJly to a
poet like Oflian, who wrote from the immediate impulfe of
poetical enthufiafm, and without much preparation of ftudy
or labour. Fertile as Homer's imagination is acknowledged
to be, who does not know how often his Lions and Bulls,
and Flocks of Sheep, recur with little or no variation ; nay,
fometimes in the very fame words ? The objection made to
Offian is, however, founded, in a great meafure upon a
miftake. It has been fupppfpd by inattentive readers, that
where\er the Moon, the Cloud, or the Thunder, returns irj
a limile, it is the fame fimile, and the fame Moon, or Cloud,
or Thunder, which they had met with a few pages before^,
Whereas very often the fimilies are widely dilFerent. The
objedt, whence they are taken, is indeed in fubftance the
fame ; but the image is new ; for the appearance of the ob-
jeift is changed ; it is prefented to the fancy in another atti-
tude ; and clothed with new circumftances, to make it fuit
the different iiluftratton for which it is employed. In this,
lies Offian's great art ; in fo happily varying the form of the
few natural appearances with which he was acquainted, as
to make them correfpond to a great many different objeds.
Let us take for one inftance the Moon, which is very fre-
quently introduced into his comparifons ; as in northern
climates, where the nights are long, the Moon is a greater
objeft of attention, than in the climate of Homer; and let
us view how much our poet has diverfified its appearance.
The Ihield of a warrior is like " the darkened moon when
it