Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

38S A CRITICAL DISSERTATION OM
is, the total absence of religious ideas from this work ; for which
the translator has, in his preface, given a very probable account,
on the footing of its being the work of Ossian. The druidical
superstition was, in the days of Ossian, on the point of its final ex-
tinftion ; and for particular reasons, odious to the family of Fingal;
whilst the Christian faith was not yet established. But had it been
the work of one, to whom the ideas of Christianity were familiar
from his infancy ; and who had superadded to them also the bi-
gotted superstition of a dark age and country ; it is impossible but
in some passage or other, the traces of them would have appeared.
The other circumstance is, the entire silence which reigns with
respeft to all the great clans or families, which are now established
in the Highlands. The origin of these several clans is known to
be very ancient : And it is as well known, that there is no passion
by which a native Highlander is more distinguished, than by at-
tachment to his clan, and jealousy for its honour. That a High-
land bard, in forging a work relating to the antiquities of his
country, should have inserted no circumstance which pointed out
the rise of his own clan, which ascertained its antiquity, or in-
creased its glory, is of all suppositions that can be formed, the
most improbable ; and the silence on this head amounts to a de-
monstration that the author lived before any of the present great
clans were formed or known.
Assuming it then, as we well may, for certain, that the poems
now under consideration, are genuine venerable monuments of
very remote antiquity •, I proceed to make some remarks upon
their general spirit and strain. The two great charafteristics of
Ossian's poetry are, tenderness and sublimity. It breathes no-
thing of the gay and cheerful kind ; an air of solemnity and
seriousness is diffused over the whole. Ossian is perhaps the only
poet who never relaxes, or lets himself down into the light and
amusing strain ; which I readily admit to be no small disadvan-
tage, to him, with the bulk of readers. He moves perpetually
in the high region of the grand and the pathetic. One key note
is struck at the beginning and supported to the end ; nor is any
ornament introduced but what is perfectly concordant with the
general tone or melody. The events recorded, are all serious and
grave 5 the scenery throughout, wild and romantic. The extended
heath