Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 1

4? A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON
that entliufiafm, that vehemence and fire, which are
the Icul of poetry. For many circumflances of thofe
times which we call barbarous, are favourable to the
poetical fpirit. That ftate, in which human nature
Ihoots wild and free, though unfit for other improve-
ments, certainly encourages the high exertions of fancy
and pafTon
In the infancy of fccieties, men live fcattered and
difpcrfed, in the midft of folltary rural fcenes, wh.ere
the beauties of nature are their chief entertainment.
They meet with many obje^is, to them new and
ftrange ; their wonder and furprife are frequtnlly ex-
cited ; and by the fiiddcn changes of fortune occurring
in their unfettled ftate of life, their paffions are raifed to
the utmoft. Their paffions have nothing to reftraiii
tl:em: their imagination has nothing to check it. They
difplay themfelves to one another without difguife; and
ccnverfe and adl in the uncovered fimplicity of nature.
As their feelings are ftrong, fo tlieir language, of itfelf,
afiumes a poetical turn. Prone to exaggerate, they de-
fcribe every thing in the ftrongeft colours ; which of
courfe renders their fpeech pi<fi;urefquc and figurative.
Figurative language owes its rife chiefly to two caufes;
to the want of proper names for objedls, and to the in-
fluence of im.aginaticnand palRon over the form of ex-
prefiion. Both thefe caufes concur in the infancy of
Ibciety. Figures are commonly confiuered as artificial
modes of fpeech, devifed by orators and poets, after the
world had advanced to a refined flate. The contrary
of this is the truth. Men never have ufed fo many fi-
gures of ftyle, as in thofe rude ages, when, bcfides the
power of a warm imagination to fuggeft lively images,
the want of prcper and precife terms for the ideas they
would exprcfs, obliged tlicm to have recourfe to cir-
cumlocution, metaphor, comparifou, and all thole fub-
ftituted forms of exprcfiion, which give a poetical air to
language. An American chief, at this day, harangues
at the head of his tribe, ia a more bold metaphorical