Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

C4 CRITICAL DISSERTATIOjST
and it is as well known that there is no passion by
which a native Highlander is more distinguished
than by attachment to his clan, and jealousy for its
honour. That a Highland 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 an-
tiquity', or increased its glory, is, of all supposi-
tious tliatcan be formed, the most improbable: and
the silence on this head amounts to a demonstra-
tion that the author lived before any of the present
great clans were formed or known.
Assuming it then, as well we may, for certain,
that tlie Poems, now under consideration, are ge-
nuine venerable monuments of a very remote anti- ,
quity, I proceed to make some remarks upon their
general spirit and strain. The two great character-
istics of Ossian's poetry are, tenderness and sub-
limity. It breathes nothing of the gay and cheerful
kind; an air of solemnity and seriousness is dif-
fused over the whole. Ossian is perhaps the only
poet who never relaxes, or lets himself down into
the light and amusing strain; whicli I readily ad-
mit to be no small disadvantage 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 eaid ; nor is any ornament introduced, but what
is perfectly concordant with the general tone or
melody. The events recorded, are all serious and
grave; tlie scenery throughout, wild and romantic.
The extended heath by the sea-shore ; the moun-
tains shaded witli mist; the torrent rushing through
a solitary valley ; the scattered oaks, and the tombs
of warriors overgrown with moss ; all produce a
soleum attention in the mind, and prepare it for
great and extraordinary events. We find not in
Ossian an imagination that sports itself, and dresses
out gay trifles to please the fancy. His poetry,
more perhaps than that of any other writer, de-
serves to be styled. The puetri/ of the heart. It
is a heart penetrated with noble sentiments, and
with sublime and tender passions; a heart that