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

THE POEMS or OSSIAN. 41^
ftyle, than a modern European would adventure to ufe
in an epic poem.
In the progrefs of fociety, the genius and manners of
men undergo a change more favourable to accuracy
than to fprightlinefs and fublimity. As the world ad-
vances, the underftanding gains ground upon the ima-
gination ; the underftanding is more exercifed ; the
imagination lefs. Fewer obje<fls occur that are new or
furprifing. Men apply themfeives to trace the caufes
of things ; they correal and renue one another ; they
fubdue or difguife their paflions ; they form their ex-
terior manners upon one uniform ftandard of politenefs
and civility. Human nature is pruned according to
method and rule. Language advances from fterility
to copioufnefs, and at the fame time, from fervour and
enthufiafm, to sorreclnefs and precifion. Style be-
comes more chafte ; but lefs animated. The progrefs
of the world in this refpe<5l refembles the progrefs of
age in man. The powers of imagination are moil vi-
gorous and predominant in youth ; thofeof the under-
ftanding ripen more llowly, and often attain not their
maturity, till the imagination begin to Sag. Hence,
poetry, wliich is the child of imagination, is frequently
moft glowing and animated in the firiL ages of fociety.
As the ideas of our youth are remembei-ed with a pe-
culiar pleafure on account of their livelinefs and vivaci-
ty ; fo the moil ancient poems have often proved the
greateil favourites of nations.
Poetry has been faid to be more ancient than proFe ;
and however paradoxical fuch an alTertion inay feera,
yet, in a qualified fenfe it is true. Men certainly never
converfed with one another in regular numbers ; but
even their ordinary language wo\ilu, in ancient times,
for the reafons before ailigned, approach to a poetical
ftyle ; and tlie firll compofitions tranfmitted to poIleH-
ty, beyond doubt, were, in a literal fenfe, poems ; that
is, compofitions in v/hich imagination had the chief
hand, formed into fome kind of numbers, and pro-
nounced with a mufical modulation or tone. Muiic or