Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

102 CRITICAL DISSERTATION
decca, wherein the tenderness of Tibullus seems
united with the majesty of Virgil. " The daughter
of the snow over-heard, and left the hall of her se-
cret sigh. She came in all her beauty ; like the
moon from the cloud of the east. Loveliness was
around her as light. Iler steps was like the music
of songs. She saw the youth and loved him. He
was the stolen sigh of her soul. Her blue eyes
rolled on him in secret; and she blest the chief of
Morven." Several other instances might be pro-
duced of the feelings of love and friendship paint-
ed by our Author with a most natural and happy
delicacy.
The simplicity of Ossian's manner adds great
beauty to his descriptions, and indeed to his whole .
poetry. We meet with no affected ornaments ; no
forced refinement; no marks either in style or
thought of a studied endeavour to shine or sparkle.
Ossian appears every where to be prompted by his
feelings ; and to speak from the abundance of his
heart. I remember no more than one instance of
what can be called a quaint thouglit in this whole
collection of his works. It is in the first book of
Fiugal, where, from the tombs of two lovers, two
lonely yews are mentioned to have sprung, "whose
branches wished to meet on high." This sympathy
of the trees with the lovers, may be reckoned to
border on an Italian conceit; and it is somewhai
curious to find this single instance of that sort ol
wit in our Celtic poetry.
The "joy of grief " is one of Ossian's remarka-
ble expressions, several times repeated. If any on( '
shall tliink that it needs to be justified by a prece
dent, he may find it twice used by Homer : in th(
Iliad, when Achilles is visited by the ghost of Pa
troclus ; and in the Odyssey, when Ulysses meet;
his mother in the shades. On both these occasions
the heroes, melted with tenderness, lament theii
not having it in their power to throw their arm;
round the ghost, " that we might," say they, " ir
mutual embrace, enjoy the delight of grief."