Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

7 1 Critical Dissertatiot
strictly preserved in Fingal, that it must be perceire j
by every reader. It is a more complete unity than
what arises from relating the actions of one man,
which the Greek critic justly censures as imperfect 5
it is the unity of one enterprise, the deliverance of
Ireland from the invasion of Svvaran; an enterprise
which has surely the full heroic dignity. All the
incidents recorded bear a constant reference to one
end ; no double plot is carried on ; but the parts unite
into a regular whole : and as the action is one and
great, so it is an entire and complete action. For
we find, as the critic farther requires, a beginning,
a middle, and an end; a nodus, or intrigue in the
poem; difficulties occurring through Cuthullin'3
rashness and bad success; those difficulties gradually
surmounted; and at last the work conducted to that
happy conclusion which is held essential to epic
poetry. Unity is indeed observed with greater
exactness in Fingal, than in almost any other epic
composition. For not only is unity of subject main-
tained, but that of time and place also. The Autumn
is clearly pointed out as the season of the action ;
and from beginning to end the scene is never shifted
from the heath of Lena, along the sea-shore. The
duration of the action in Fingal, is much shorter
than in the Iliad or iEneid, but sure there may be
shoiier as well as longer heroic poems; and if the
authority of Aristotle be also required for this, he
says expressly, that the epic composition is indefinite
as to the time of its dm-ation. Accordingly the
action of the Iliad lasts only forty-seven days, whilst
that of the iEneid is continued for more than a year.
Throughout the whole of Fingal, there reigns
that grandeur of sentiment, style and imagery,
which ought ever to distingish this high species of
poetry. The story is conducted with no small art.
The poet goes not back to a tedious recital of the
beginning of the war with Swaran ; but hastening
to the main action, he falls in exactly, by a most