Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

on the Poems of Ossian. G\
such a hero as Fingal. Especially when we con-
sider that among their limited objects of ambition,
among the few advantages which, in a savage state,
man covJd obtain over man, the chief was fame,
and that immortality which they expected to
receive from their virtues and exploits in the
songs of bards.
Having made these remarks on the Celtic poetry
and bards in general, I shall next consider the
particular advantages which Ossian possessed. He
appears clearly to have lived in a period which en-
joyed all the benefit I just now mentioned of tra-
ditionary poetry. The exploits of Trathal, Tren-
mor, and the other ancestors of Fingal, are spoken
of as familiarly known. Ancient bards are fre-
quently alluded to. In one remarkable passage,
Ossian describes himself as living in a sort of clas-
sical age, enlightened by the memorials of former
times, which were conveyed in the songs of bards ;
and points at a period of darkness and ignorance
which lay beyond the reach of tradition. " His
words," says he, "came only by halves to our ears;
they were dark as the tales of other times, before
the light of the song arose." Ossian him-
self appears to have been endowed by nature with
an exquisite sensibility of heart ; prone to that
tender melancholy which is so often an attendant
on great genius, and susceptible equally of strong
and of soft emotions. He was not only a profess-
ed bard, educated with care, as we may easily be-
lieve, to all the poetical art then known, and
connected, as he shows us himself, in intimate
ft-iendship with the other contemporary bards, but
a waiTior also, and the son of the most renowned
hero and prince of his age. This formed a con-
junction of circumstances uncommonly favourable
towards exalting the imagination of a poet. He
relates expeditions in which he had been engaged ;
he sings of battles in which he had fought and