Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 443
pleasures, to dangers, and to death, forms what may be called
the moral or sentimental sublime. For this, Ossian is eminently
distinguished. No poet maintains a higher tone of virtuous
and noble sentiment, throughout all his works. Particularly
in all the sentiments of Fingal, there is a grandeur and loftiness
proper to swell the mind with the highest ideas of human per-
fe<Slion. Wherever he appears, w^e behold the hero. The ob-
jedls which he pursues, are always truly great; to bend the proud;
to prote£l the injured ; to defend his friends -, to overcome his
enemies by generosity more than by force. A portion of the same
spirit aQuates all the other heroes. Valour reigns; but it is a ge-
nerous valour, void of cruelty, animated by honour, not by hatred.
We behold no debasing passions among Fingal's warriors ; no spirit
of avarice or of insult ; but a perpetual contention for fame ; a de-
sire of being distinguished and remembered for gallant adlions 5 a
love of justice; and a zealous attachment to their friends and their
country. Such is tlie strain of sentiment in the works of Ossian,
But the sublimity of moral sentiments, if they wanted the
softening of the tender, would be in hazard of giving a hard and
stiff air to poetry. It is not enough to admire. Admiration is a
cold feeling, in comparison of that deep interest, which the heart
takes in tender and pathetic scenes ; where, by a mysterious at-
tachment to the obje£ls of compassion, we are pleased and de-
lighted, even whilst we mourn. Witli scenes of this kind, Ossi^i
abounds ; and his high merit in these, is incontestable. He may
be blamed for drawing tears too often from our eyes j but that he
has the power of commanding them, I believe no man, who hag
the least sensibility, will question. The general character of his
poetry, is the heroic, mixed with the elegiac strain ; admiration
tempered with pity. Ever fond of giving, as he expresses it, " tlie
" joy of grief," it is visible, that on all moving subjects, he de-
lights to exert his genius ; and accordingly, never were there liner
pathetic situations, than what his works present. His great art
in managing them lies in giving vent to the simpk and natural
emotions of the heart. We meet with no exaggerated declama-
tion ; no subtile refinements on sorrow ; no substitution of de-
scription in place of passion. Ossian felt strongly himself ^ and
the heart when uttering its native language never fails, by power-
ful