Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

iXXXVl A CRITICAL DISSERTATION
mind is kept at such a stretch in accompanying
the author; that an ordinary reader is at lirst apt
to be dazzled and fatigued, rather than pleased.
His poems require to be taken up at intervals.
and to be frequently reviewed ; and then it is im-
possible but his beauties must open to every reader
who is capable of sensibility. Those who have
the highest degree of it, will relish them the most.
As Homer is, of all the great poets, the one
whose mmner, and whose times, come the nearest
to Ossian's, we are naturally led to run a parallel
in some instances between the Greek and the
Celtic bard. For though Homer lived more than
a thousand years before Ossian, it is not from the
age of the world, but from the state of society,
that we are to judge of resembling times. The
Greek has, in several points, a manifest supe-
riority. He introduces a greater variety of inci-
dents ; he possesses a larger compass of ideas ; has
more diversity in his characters; and a much
deeper knowledge of human nature. It was not
to be expected, that in any of these particulars,
Ossian could equal Homer. For Homer lived in
a country where society was much farther ad-
vanced; he had beheld many more objects ; cities
built and flourishing; laws instituted; order, dis-
cipline, and arts, begun. His field of observation
was much larger and more splendid; his know-
ledge, of course, more extensive; his mind also,
it shall be granted, more penetrating. But if
Ossian's ideas and objects be less diversified than
those of Homer, they are all, however, of the
kind fittest for poetry: the bravery and generosity
of h3ro2S, the tenderness of lovers, the attachment
of friends, parents^ and children. In a rude age