Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

ON THE POEMS OF OSSIAK. 9S
tender and anxious concern for the safety of Cathmor,
her dream, and her melting remembrance of the land
of hei fathers ; Cath.Tior's emotion when he first dis-
covers her, his stru;:^gles to conceal and suppress his
passion, lest it should unman him in the midst of war,
though " his soul puured forth in secret, when he bt-
" held her fearful eye ;" and the last interview between
jthem, when, overcom.e by her tenderness, he lets her
'know he had discovered her, and confesses his passion ;
are all wrouglit up with the most exquisite sensibility
and delicacy.
Jiesides the characters which appeared in Fingal, se-
veral new ones are here introduced : and though, as
they are all the characters of warriors, bravery is the
jpredurninant feature, they are nevertheless diversified
t|in a sensible and striking manner. Foldath, for in-
|stance, the general of Cathmor, exhibits the perfect
lipicture of a savage chieftain : bold and daring, but pre-
sumptuous, cruel, and overbearing. He is distinguish-
jed, on his first appearance, as the friend of the tyrant
, Cairbar ; " His stride is haughty, his red eye rolls in
i" wrath." In his person and whole deportment, he is
[contrasted with the mild and wise Hidalla, another
leader of the same army, on whose humanity and
igentleress he looks with great contempt. He profess-
Icdly delights in strife and blood. He insults over the
^fallen. He is impervious in his counsels, and factious
when they are rot followed. He is unrelenting in all
his schemes of revenge, even to the length of denying
the funeral song to the dead ; which, from the injury
thereby done to the ghosts, was in those days consi-
dered as the greatest barbarity. Fierce to the last, he
comforts himself in his dying moments, with thinking
that his ghost shall often leave its blast to rejoice over
the graves of those he had slain. Yet Ossian, ever
:prone to the pathetic, has contrived to throw into his
account of the death even of this man, some tender
'circuinstances, by the moving description of his daugh-
ter Dardu-lena, the last of his race.