Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

CHARACTER OF HIS EARLY POETRY. 6r
by evidence much more conclusive than any
one's statement ; namely, the evidence of his own
poetical compositions. As every one knows,
the minor poet at the age of twenty or two-
and-twenty is little but the echo of what
he reads. If Macpherson were influenced by
the beauty of what he had heard recited, we
might expect to find in what he wrote himself
an exact measure of its extent. There is un-
doubtedly some trace of this influence in The
Highlander ; but it is slight. It is impossible
for any one to read that poem and not perceive
that the predominating influence there, as in
almost all the poetry of the time, is classical.
Now and then we come upon something in
the imagery which reminds us of the Ossianic
touch ; but it no more lends a tone to the
general effect of the poem than a patch of
wild nature here and there will transform the
character of a trim and ordered garden ; and it
is not because such images are numerous, but
only because they are constantly repeated, that
they make their influence felt at all. The
prevailing character of the poem is the best
evidence obtainable, nay, the best evidence
possible, that Macpherson's original ambition