circles of Loda, that is, Odin, the great Scandinavian deity. We meet with the divinations and inchantments, for which it is well known those northern nations were early famous. "There, mixed with the murmur of waters, rose the voice of aged men, who "called the forms of night to aid them in their war;" whilst the Caledonian chiefs who assisted them, are described as standing at a distance, heedless of their rites. That ferocity of manners which distinguished those nations, also becomes conspicuous. In the com. bats of their chiefs, there is a peculiar savageness; even their women are bloody and fierce. The spirit, and the very ideas of Regner Lodbrog, that northern scalder whom I formerly quoted, occur to us again. "The "hawks," Ossian makes one of the Scandinavian chiefs say, "rush from all their winds: they are wont to "trace my course. We rejoiced three days above the dead, and called the hawks of heaven. They came "from all their winds to feast on the foes of Annir."

Dismissing now the separate consideration of any of our author's works, I proceed to make some observations on his manner of writing, under the general heads of Description, Imagery, and Sentiment.

A poet of original genius is always distinguished by his talent for description". A second rate writer discerns nothing new or peculiar in the object he means to describe. His conceptions of it are vague and loose; his expressions feeble; and of course the object is presented to us indistinctly, and as through a cloud. But a true poet makes us imagine that we see it before our eyes: he catches the distinguishing features; he gives it the colours of life and reality; he places it in such a light, that a painter could copy after him. The happy talent is chiefly owing to a lively imagination, which first receives a strong impression of the object; and then, by a proper selection of capital picturesque circumstances employed in describing it, transmits that impression in its full force to the imagination of others.

See the rules of poetical description, excellently illustrated by Lord Kaimes, in

is Elements of Criticism, vol. iii. chap. 21. Of Narration and Description.

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That Ossian possesses this descriptive power in a high degree, we have a clear proof from the effect which his descriptions produce upon the imaginations of those who read kim with any degree of attention and taste. Few poets are more interesting. We contract an intimate acquaintance with his principal heroes. The chaacters, the manners, the face of the country, become familiar; we even think we could draw the figure of his ghosts in a word, whilst reading him, we are transported as into a new region, and dwelling among his objects, as if they were all real.

It were easy to point out several instances of exquisite painting in the works of our author. Such, for instance, as the scenery with which Temora opens, and the attitude in which Cairbar is there presented to us; the description of the young prince Cormac, in the same book; and the ruins of Balclutha in Carthon. "I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they were "desolate. The fire had resounded in the halls, and "the voice of the people is heard no more. The stream "of Clutha was removed from its place by the fall of "the walls. The thistle shook there its lonely head: "the moss whistled to the wind. The fox looked out "from the windows; the rank grass of the wall waved "round his head. Desolate is the dwelling of Moina, "and silence is in the house of her fathers." Nothing also can be more natural and lively than the manner -in which Carthon afterwards describes how the conflagration of his city affected him when a child: “ Have "I not seen the fallen Balclutha? And shall I feast "with Comhal's son? Comhal! who threw his fire in "the midst of my father's hall! I was young, and knew "not the cause why the virgins wept. The columns "of smoke pleased mine eye, when they rose above "my walls; I often looked back with gladness, when 66 my friends filed above the hill. But when the years "of my youth came on, I beheld the moss of my fal"len walls. My sigh arose with the morning; and my tears descended with night. Shall I not fight, I "said to my soul, against the children of my foes?

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"and I will fight, O bard! I feel the strength of my "soul." In the same poem, the assembling of the chiefs round Fingal, who had been warned of some impending danger by the appearance of a prodigy, is described with so many picturesque circumstances, that one imagines himself present in the assembly. "The

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king alone beheld the terrible sight, and he foresaw "the death of his people. He came in silence to his "hall, and took his father's spear; the mail rattled on "his breast. The heroes rose around. They looked "in silence on each other, marking the eyes of Fingal. "They saw the battle in his face. A thousand shields are placed at once on their arms; and they drew a "thousand swords. The hall of Selma_brightened a"round. The clang of arms ascends. The grey dogs "howl in their place. No word is among the mighty "chiefs. Each marked the eyes of the king; and half "assumed his spear."

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It has been objected to Ossian, that his descriptions of military actions are imperfect, and much less diversified by circumstances than those of Homer. This is in some measure true. The amazing fertility of Homer's invention is no where so much displayed as in the incidents of his battles, and in the little history pieces he gives of the persons slain. Nor indeed, with regard to the talent of description, can too much be said in praise of Homer. Every thing is alive in his writings. The colours with which he paints are those of nature. But Ossian's genius was of a different kind from Homer's. It led him to hurry towards grand objects rather than to amuse himself with particulars of less importance. He could dwell on the death of a favourite hero: but that of a private man seldom stopped his rapid course. Homer's genius was more comprehensive than Ossian's. It included a wider circle of objects; and could work up any incident into description. Ossian's was more limited; but the region within which it chiefly exerted itself was the highest of all, the region of the pathetic and sublime.

We must not imagine, however, that Ossian's battles consist only of general indistinct description. Such beautiful incidents are sometimes introduced, and the circumstances of the persons slain, so much diversified, as show that he could have embellished his military scenes with an abundant variety of particulars, if his genius had led him to dwell upon them. "One man. "is stretched in the dust of his native land; he fell, "where often he had spread the feast, and often raised "the voice of the harp." The maid of Inistore is introduced, in a moving apostrophe, as weeping for another; and a third, "as rolled in the dust, he lifted "his faint eyes to the king," is remembered and mourned by Fingal as the friend of Agandecca. The blood pouring from the wound of one who is slain by night, is heard "hissing on the half-extinguished oak," which had been kindled for giving light another climbing a tree to escape from his foe, is pierced by his spear from behind;" shrieking, panting he fell; whilst moss "and withered branches pursue his fall, and strew the blue arms of Gaul." Never was a finer picture drawn of the ardour of two youthful warriors than the following: "I saw Gaul in his armour, and my soul was "mixed with his: for the fire of the battle was in his eyes; he looked to the foe with joy. We spoke the "words of friendship in secret; and the lightning of 66 our swords poured together. We drew them behind "the wood, and tried the strength of our arms on the empty air."

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Ossian is always concise in his descriptions, which adds much to their beauty and force. For it is a great mistake to imagine, that a crowd of particulars, or a very full and extended style, is of advantage to description. On the contrary, such a diffuse manner for the most part weakens it. Any one redundant circumstance is a nuisance. It encumbers and loads the fancy, and renders the main image indistinct. "Obstat," as Quintilian says with regard to style, "quicquid non adjuvat." To be concise in description, is one thing; end to be general, is another. No description that

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rests in generals can possibly be good; it can convey no lively idea; for it is of particulars only that we have a distinct conception. But at the same time, no strong imagination dwells long upon any one particular; or heaps together a mass of trivial ones. By the happy choice of some one, or of a few that are the most striking, it presents the image more complete, shows us more at one glance, than a feeble imagination is able to do, by turning its object round and round into a variety of lights. Tacitus is of all prose writers the most concise. He has even a degree of abruptness resembling our author: yet no writer is more eminent for lively description. When Fingal, after having conquered the haughty Swaran, proposes to dismiss him with honour: "Raise to-morrow thy white sails to the wind, thou brother of Agandecca!" he conveys, by thus addressing his enemy, a stronger impression of the emotions then passing within his mind, than if whole paragraphs had been spent in describing the conflict between resentment against Swaran, and the tender remembrance of his ancient love. No amplification is needed to give us the most full idea of a hardy veteran, after the few following words: "His shield is marked "with the strokes of battle; his red eye despises danger." When Oscar, left alone, was surrounded by foes," he stood," it is said, " growing in his place, "like the flood of the narrow yale;" a happy representation of one, who by daring intrepidity in the midst of danger, seems to increase in his appearance, and becomes more formidable.every moment, like the sudden rising of the torrent hemmed in by the valley. And a whole crowd of ideas, concerning the circumstances of domestic sorrow occasioned by a young warrior's first going forth to battle, is poured upon the mind by these words: "Calmar leaned on his father's spear; "that spear which he brought from Lara's hall, when "the soul of his mother was sad."

The conciseness of Ossian's descriptions is the more proper on account of his subjects. Descriptions of gay and siniling scenes may, without any disadvantage,