Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

94 CRITICAL DISSERTATION
ticular, exactly conformable to the practice of Homer
and Virgil, were the mere squeamishness and pedan- .
try of criticLsm. Examined even according to Aris-
1;otle's rules, it will be found to have all the essential
requisites of a true and regular epic ; and to have
several of them in so high a degree, as at first view
to rai^e our astonishment on finding Ossian's compo-
sition so agreeable to rules of which he was entirely
ignorant. But our astonishment will cease, when we
consider from what source Aristotle drew those rules.
Homer knew no more of the laws of criticism than
Ossian. But, guided by nature, he composed in verse
a regular stor^', founded on heroic actions, which all
posterity admired. Aristotle, with great sagacity and
penetration,traced the causes of this general admiration.
He obser\'ed what it was in Homer's composition, and
in the conduct of his story, which gave it such power
to please ; from this observation he deduced the rules
which poets ought to follow, who would write and
please like Homer ; and to a composition formed ac-
cording to such rules, he gave the name of an epic
poem. Hence his whole system arose. Aristotle
studied nature in Homer. Homer and Ossian both
wrote from nature. No wonder that among all the
three, there should be such agreement and conformity.
The fundamental rules deUvered by Aristotle, con-
cerning an epic poem, are these : That the action,
which is the ground- work of the poem, should be one,
complete, and great ; that it should be feigned, not
merely historical; that it should be enlivened with
characters and manners, and heightened by the mar-
vellous.
But, before entering on any of these, it may per-
haps be asked, what is the moral of Fingal? For, ac-
cording to M. Bossu, an epic poem is no other than
an allegory contrived to illustrate some moral truth.
The poet, says this critic, must begin with fixing on
some maxim or instruction, which he intends to incul-
cate on mankind. He next forms a fable, like one of
./loop's, wholly with a view to the moral ; and having
thus settled and arranged his plan, he then looks into
traditionary history for names and incidents, to give