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071 the Poems of Ossian. 61
foi- the ideas they would express, obliged them to
have recourse to circumlocution, metaphor, com-
parison, and all those substituted forms of expres-
sion which give a poetical air to language. An
American chief at this day harangues at the head
of his tribe in a more bold and metaphorical style,
than a modern European would adventure to use
in an epic poem.
In the progress of society, the genius and maa-
ners of men undergo a change more favourable to
accuracy than to sprightliness and sublimity. As
the world advances, the understanding gains ground
upon the imagination; the understanding is more
exercised ; the imagination less. Fewer objects
occur that are new or surprising. Men apply
themselves to trace the causes of things ; they cor-
rect and refine one another ; they subdue or dis-
guise their passions ; they form their exterior
manners upon one uniform standard of politeness
and civility. Human nature is pruned according
to method and rule. Language advances from
sterility to copiousness, and at the same time, from
fervour and enthusiasm to correctness and pre-
cision. Style becomes more chaste but less
animated. The progi-ess of the world in this
respect resembles the progress of age in man. The
powers of imagination are most vigorous and pre-
dominant in youth; those of the understanding
ripen more slowly, and often attain not to their
maturity till the imagination begins to flag.
Hence poetry, which is the child of imagination,
is frequently most glowing and animated in the
first ages of society. As the ideas of our youth
are remembered with a pecuHar pleasure on account
of their loveliness and vivacity, so the most an-
cient poems have often proved the greatest favour-
ites of nations.
Poetry has been said to be more ancient than
prose : and however paradoxical such an assertion