Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

ON THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 131
purpose to describe lions or tigers by similes taken from
men, than to compare men to lions. Ossian is very
correct in this particular. His imagery is, without
exception, copied from that face of nature which he
saw before his eyes ; and by consequence may be ex-
pected to be lively. We meet with no Grecian or ■
Italian scenery ; but with the mists, and clouds, and
storms, of a northern mountainous region.
• No poet abounds more in similes than Ossian. There
are in this collection as many, at least, as in the whole
Iliad and Odyssey of Homer. I am indeed inclined
to think, that the works of both poets are too much
crowded with them. Similes are sparkling ornaments;
and, like all things that sparkle, are apt to dazzle and
tire us by their lustre. But if Ossian's similes be too
frequent, they have this advantage, of being commonly
shorter than Homer's ; they interrupt his narration
less ; he just glances aside to some resembling object,
and instantly returns to his former track. Homer's
similes include a wider range of objects: but, in return,
Ossian"s are, without exception, taken from objects of
dignity, which cannot be said for all those which
Homer employs. The sun, the moon, and the stars,
clouds and meteors, lightning and thunder, seas and
whales, rivers, torrents, winds, ice, rain, snow, dews,
mist, fire and smoke, trees and forests, heath and grass
and flowers, rocks and mountams, music and songs,
light and darkness, spirits and ghosts ; these form the
circle within Mhich Ossian's comparisons generally
run. Some, not many, are taken from birds and beasts;
as eagles, sea-fowl, the horse, the deer, and the moun-
tain bee ; and a very few from such operations of art
as were then known. Homer has diversified his ima-
gery by many more allusions to the animal world; to
lions, bulls, goats, herds of cattle, serpents, insects;
and to the various occupations of rural and pastoral
life. Ossian's defect, in this article, is plainly owing
to the desert, uncultivated state of his coimtry-, which
suggested to him few images beyond natural inanimate
objects, in their rudest form. The birds and animals
of the country were probably not numerous ; and his