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

128 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION.
<' purfuing: the thiftle's beard. O tl\at yc had been
« n>i^llng"inthe fails of Ts'athcs, till tlic hills ofEtlia
<* rofe ! till theyrofe in tlieir clouds, and law their
<' coming chief." This pafiage is remarkable for the
referoblance it bears to an expoltulation with the wood
nvmphs, on their abfence at a critical time ; which as
a favourite poetical idea, Virgil has copied from Theo-
critus, and Milton has very happilv imitated from,
both.
V>'ii;re were ye, nymphs ! when the rcmorfelefs deqp
ClosMo'er the hesdof your lov'd Lycidas?
IDr ncitiier were yc nlayinp: on the fleep
%Vheie your old bards, the famous droids, lie ;
Kor on the ihapgy top of Mona, high.
Nor yet where Deva fpreadj her wizard ftream f.
Having now treated fully of Ofiian's talents \vi[l>
refpecTc to defcription and imagery, it only remains to
make fome obfervations on his fentiments. No len-
timents can be beautiful without being proper ; that
is, fuited to the charadler and fituation of thofe who
litter them. In this refpe<5t, Offian is as corredl as
mofi" wTiters. His charavTters, as above obferved, are
in general well i'upported; which could not have been
the cafe, had the fentiments been unnatural or out of
place. A variety of perfonages of difFcrent ages, fexes,
and conditions, are Introduced Into his poems ; and
they fpeak and act with a propriety of fentiment and
behaviour, which It is furprifing to find in fo rude an
age. Let the poem of Dar-thula, throughout, be taken
as an ( xample.
But it is not enough that fentiments be natural and
proper. In order to acquire any high degree of po-
ctK-ai merit, they m.ufl alfo be fubliiue and pathetic.
Tlie fublime is not coi>fined to fentiment alone. It
behmgs to defcription alfo ; and wiiether in defcrip-
t Milton's l.vtii!a5. See Thcoait. Idyll. J.
ria TToyt a^ ;icrO r/.a Aafc/c iTaxiTo ; rra. Troxv.,
'NvL'.(pat, Sic.
Qua: netpota, au