Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

IX.] SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 283
makes the Gael, in poetry as well as in practice, venerate
heroes, cling to the heroic through all vicissitudes ;
though the heroes fall, die, and disappear, still he
remains faithful to their memories, loves these, and
only these. This fervid devotion to the memory of all
the Fenian warriors whom he had known, is a character-
istic note in Ossian, but it becomes quite a passionate
tenderness towards 'the household hearts that were
his own,' towards his father Fion, his brother Fillan,
his son Oscar. The laments he pours over this
latter exceed in their piercing tenderness anything
in Greek or Roman poetry, and recall some Hebrew
strains.
These feelings of devotion to their chiefs, and tenacity
of affection to their kindred, which we find in their
most ancient poetry, reappear in the Gael throughout
all their history, down to the present hour.
Again, this same sensibility made a lofty ideal of
life quite natural to the Gael, even before Christianity
had reached him ; made his heart open to admire the
generous and the noble, and imparted a peculiar delicacy
to his sentiments, and courtesy to his manners, — qualities
which, even after all he has undergone, have not yet
forsaken him. These qualities enter largely into the
Ossianic ideal. It is wonderful how free from all gross-
ness these poems are, how great purity pervades them.
There is, of course, the dark side to this picture : ferocity
of vengeance when enraged, recklessness of human life.