Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

4^4 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON
*' The half-enlightened moon sinks dim and red behind her hill.
" Feeble voices are heard on the heath. Oscar drew his sword."
Nothing can prepare the fancy more happily for the awful scene
that is to follow. " Trenmor came from his hill, at the voice of
" his mighty son. A cloud like the steed of the stranger, sup-
** ported his airy limbs. His robe is of the mist of Leno, that
" brings death to the people. His sword is a green meteor, half-
" extinguished. His face is without form, and dark. He sighed
" thrice over the hero : And thrice, the winds of the night roared
" around. Many were his words to Oscar. He slowly vanished,
" like a mist that melts on the sunny hill." To appearances of
this kind, we can find no parallel among the Greek or Roman
poets. They bring to mind that noble description in the book of
Job : « In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep
" sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling which
" made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my
" face. The hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still ; but I
" could not discern the form thereof. An image was before mine
" eyes. There was silence ; and I heard a voice — Shall mortal
** man be more just than God ?"*
As Ossian's supernatural beings are described with a surprising
force of imagination, so they are introduced with ,propriety. We
have only three ghosts in Fingal: That of Crugal, which comes
to warn the host of impending destru£l:ion, and to advise them to
save themselves by retreat ; that of Everallin, the spouse of Ossian,
which calls him to rise and rescue their son from danger ; and
that of Agandecca, v/hich just before the last engagement with
Swaran, moves Fingal to pity, by mourning for the approaching
destruftion of her kinsmen and people. In the other poems,
ghosts sometimes appear when invoked to foretell futurity ; fre-
quently, according to the notions of these times, they come as
forerunners of misfortune or death, to those whom they visit ;
sometimes they inform their friends at a distance, of their own
.death ; and sometimes they are introduced to heighten the scenery
on some great and solemn occasion. *' A hundred oaks burn to
*' the wind ; and faint light gleams over the heath. The ghosts
" of Ardven pass through the beam j and shew their dim and
« distant
* Job iv. 13 — 17,