J. F. Campbell Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

302 TRANSLATION OF THE
That a modern author, wisliing to counterfeit an
ancient, may mingle his st^'le with those Avliimsical
singularities, which characterize the supposcd age, is
an artifice not at all extraordinary ; and, ifan autlior
did not avail himself of such aid, his aim would be
lost. But to carry sucli an idea beyoud all reason-
able bounds, and that idly too, and without compul-
sion, is not to be easily believed by those who
have any knowledge of the nature of self-love.
Had the supposed author, in his tragical narrations,
used a style less concise and abrupt, and divested it
of those accessories, M'liich might have rendered
the narrations more natural and probable ; had his
adventures been somewliat less romantic and uni-
form ; the old men not all blind ; the sudden deaths
not so frequent and common : had the number of his
comparisons been reduced to one third : had, in fine,
the winds, mists, and torrents, not been resorted to
so often to embarrass his subject, overwhehning it
with useless, and sometimes with unseasonable cir-
cumstances : had the author been more moderate in
all those points, Ossian, I say, with the essential
coiouring of his style, would liave appeared neither
less original nor less ancient. It was cxtrcmely easy
for a modern poet to guard himself against tlic excess
of these modes, which indeed he ouglit to have
done, to avoid incurring the animadversions of many
fastidious readers of the present age, distracting
tlieir attcntion by a perusal of them, opening a
field to derisions and parodies, and bringing on the
author, tliat worst of cnemies to all books, ridi-
cule. It is certain, that Ossian's virtues are so