Ossian Collection > Romance of the Highlands

74 THE ROMANCE OF THE HIGHLANDS.
much astonishment. The poems were translated into all
the European languages, and probably no author quite
conquered the world more completely than did this poor
teacher of Ruthven.
Nearly all the great men of the world were enthusi-
astic over the poems of Ossian, for it was by the name of
this most distinguished of Caledonian bards that they
were designated. Napoleon was seldom without a copy
of the book, even in exile. It lay on his pillow at night,
and his thumb marked copy is in existence to this day.
Lamartine declared that "the harp of Morven is the
emblem of my soul." Most of the literary men of
Europe were entranced with the stories, and greatly
delighted that these valuable pieces had been saved from
oblivion. It was pleasant to think that our forefathers
of the old Caledonians had rehearsed these same songs
fifteen hundred years before. Hazlitt declared that the
four books of poetry in the world were Homer, The
Bible, Dante and Ossian. The poems delighted Burns,
Byron, Scott and a host of others. Wordsworth was
dubious that all might not be genuine, for doubt now
began to be expressed in the matter. Matthew Arnold,
however, wrote thus, "Make the part of what is forged,
modern, tawdry, spurious, in the book as large as you
please. Strip Scotland if you like of every feather of
borrowed plumes. ... I make no objection. But there
will still be left in the book a residue with the very soul of
Celtic genius in it, and which has the proud distinction
of having brought this soul of the Celtic genius into
contact with the genius of the nations of modern
Europe, and enriched all our poetry by it."
Gibbon said, "The Poems of Ossian according to
every hypothesis were composed by a native Caledonian."
The poet, Gray, whose ''Elegy in a Country Church-
yard," is probably the finest lyric in the English