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on the Poems of Ossian. 87
voice of his mighty son. A cloud, hke the steed
of the stranger, siippoited his airy limbs. His
robe is of the mist of Lano, that brings death to
the people. His sword is a green meteor, half-
extinguished. His face is without form, and dark.
He sighed thrice over the hero ; and thrice the
winds of the night roared around. !Many were his
■words to Oscar, — He slowly vanished, like a mist
that melts on the sunny hill." To appearances of
this land we can find no parallel among the Greek
or Roman poets. They bring to mind that noble
description in the book of Job : "In thoughts
from the visions of the night, when deep sleep
falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit
passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood
up. It stood still; but I could not discern the
form thereof. An image was before mine eyes.
There was s Hence ; and I heard a voice — Shall
mortal man be more just than God?"
As Ossian's supernatural beings are described
with a surprising force of imagination, so they are
introduced with propriety. We have only three
ghosts in Fingal : that of Crugal, which comes to
warn the host of impending destruction, and to
advise them to save themselves by retreat ; that of
Evirallin, the spouse of Ossian, which calls him to
rise and rescue their son from danger ; and that of
Agandecca, which, just before the last engagement
with Swaran, moves Fingal to pity, by mourning
for the approaching destniction of her kinsmen and
people. In the other poems, ghosts sometimes appear
when invoked to foretell futurity ; frequently, ac-
cording to the notions of these times, they come as
forerunnei's of misfortune or death to those whom
they visit ; sometimes they inform their friends at
a distance of their own death ; and sometimes they
are introduced to heighten the scenery on some
great aud solemn occasion. ' ' A hundred oaks burn