Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

26o THE POETRY OF THE [iX.
mountains to hang some rebellious chief, and quell his
turbulent clan. The first appearance of the clans in
modern history took place when they rose in defence
of the dethroned Stuarts, and enabled Montrose to
triumph at Inverlochy, and Viscount Dundee at Killie-
crankie. When they rose again, for the same cause, in
the Fifteen and the Forty-five, especially in the latter,
they so alarmed the minds of English politicians, that
in the rebound after the victory of Culloden these
exacted from the helpless Gael a bloody vengeance,
which is one of the darkest pages in England's history.
During the century when the Gael were throwing them-
selves with all their native ardour into the political
struggle, they were making no impression on England's
literature. This was first done nearly twenty years
after the Forty-five, when James MacPherson published
his translation of the so-called Epics of Ossian.
Of the great storm of controversy which MacPherson's
Ossian awakened, I shall say nothing at present. But
whether we regard the Ossianic Poems as genuine
productions of the ancient Gael, or fabrications of
MacPherson, there cannot be a doubt that in that
publication the Gael for the first time put in their
claim to be recognised on the field, not only of Eng-
land's, but of Europe's literature. Henceforth Highland
scenery and Celtic feeling entered as a conscious ele-
ment into the poetry of England and of other nations,
and touched them with something of its peculiar scnti-