of every rude age, are represented not as purely immaterial, but as thin airy forms, which can be visible or invisible at pleasure; their voice is feeble; their arm is weak; but they are endowed with knowledge more than human. In a separate state, they retain the same dispositions which animated them in this life. They ride on the wind; they bend their airy bows; and pursue deer formed of clouds. The ghosts of departed bards continue to sing. The ghosts of departed heroes frequent the fields of their former fame. "They rest together in their caves, and talk of mortal men. "Their songs are of other worlds. They come some"times to the ear of rest, and raise their feeble voice." All this presents to us much the same set of ideas, concerning spirits, as we find in the eleventh book of the Odyssey, where Ulysses visits the regions of the dead: and in the twenty-third book of the Iliad, the ghost of Patroclus, after appearing to Achilles, vanishes precisely like one of Ossian's, emitting a shrill, feeble cry, and melting away like smoke.

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But though Homer's and Ossian's ideas concerning ghosts were of the same nature, we cannot but observe that Ossian's ghosts are drawn with much stronger and livelier colours than those of Homer. Ossian describes ghosts with all the particularity of one who had seen and conversed with them, and whose imagination was full of the impression they had left upon it. He calls up those awful and tremendous ideas which the

-Simulacra modis pallentia miris,

are fitted to raise in the human mind; and which, in Shakespeare's style," harrow up the soul' Crugal's ghost, in particular, in the beginning of the second book of Fingal, may vie with any appearance of this kind, described by any epic or tragic poet whatever. Most poets would have contented themselves with telling us, that he resembled, in every particular, the living Crugal; that his form and dress were the same, only his face more pale and sad; and that he bore the mark of the wound by which he fell. But Ossian sets before

our eyes a spirit from the invisible world, distinguished by all those features which a strong astonished imagination would give to a ghost. "A dark-red stream of "fire comes down from the hill. Crugal sat upon the "beam; he that lately fell by the hand of Swaran, “ striving in the battle of heroes. His face is like the "beam of the setting moon. His robes are of the "clouds of the hill. His eyes are like two decaying "flames. Dark is the wound of his breast. The stars

"dim-twinkled through his form; and his voice was "like the sound of a distant stream." The circumstance of the stars being beheld, " dim-twinkling thro' "his form," is wonderfully picturesque; and conveys the most lively impression of his thin and shadowy substance. The attitude in which he is afterwards placed, and the speech put into his mouth, are full of that solemn and awful sublimity which suits the subject. "Dim, and in tears, he stood, and stretched his pale "hand over the hero. Faintly he raised his feeble "voice, like the gale of the reedy Lego. My ghost, "O Connal is on my native hills; but my corse is 66 on the sands of Ullin. Thou shalt never talk with "Crugal, or find his lone steps in the heath. I am light << as the blast of Cromla; and I move like the shadow ❝of mist. Connal, son of Colgar! I see the dark cloud "of death. It hovers over the plains of Lena. The "sons of green Erin shall fall. Remove from the field "of ghosts. Like the darkened moon he retired, in "the midst of the whistling blast."

Several other appearances of spirits might be pointed out as among the most sublime passages of Ossian's poetry. The circumstances of them are considerably diversified; and the scenery always suited to the occasion. "Oscar slowly ascends the hill. The meteors "of night set on the heath before him. A distant tor"rent faintly roars. Unfrequent blasts rush through "aged oaks. The half enlightened moon sinks dim " and red behind her hill. Feeble voices are heard on "the heath. Oscar drew his sword." Nothing can prepare the fancy more happily for the awful scene that

is to follow. "Trenmor came from his hill, at the "voice of his mighty son. A cloud, like the steed of "the stranger, supported his airy limbs. His robe is "of the mist of Lano, that brings death to the people. "His sword is a green meteor half extinguished. His "face is without form, and dark. He sighed thrice 46 over the hero: and thrice the winds of the night " roared around. Many were his words to Oscar. He slowly vanished, like a mist that melts on the sunny "hill." To appearances of this kind, we can find no parallel among the Greek or Roman poets. They bring to mind that noble description in the book of Job: "In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh "stood up. It stood still; but I could not discern the "form thereof. An image was before mine eyes. "There was silence; and I heard a voice-Shall mor"tal man be more just than God"?"

As Ossian's supernatural beings are described with a surprising force of imagination, so they are introduced with propriety. We have only three ghosts in Fingal : that of Crugal, which comes to warn the host of impending destruction, and to advise them to save themselves by retreat; that of Everailin, the spouse of Ossian, which calls him to rise and rescue their son from danger; and that of Agandecca, which, just before the last engagement with Swaran, moves Fingal to pity, by mourning for the approaching destruction of her kinsmen and people. In the other poems, ghosts sometimes appear, when invoked, to foretell futurity; frequently, according to the notions of these times, they come as forerunners of misfortune or death to those whom they visit; sometimes they inform their friends at a distance, of their own death; and sometimes they are introduced to heighten the scenery on some great and solemn occasion.. "A hundred oaks burn to the "wind; and famt light gleams over the heath. The

Jub iv. 13--17.
H

"ghosts of Ard

"their dim and

"the hill. Her 1 "she is still alon had formerly kno living character is in the appearance tuled, The Death Cuthullin's death Cuthullin reproac be intimidated by "bend thy dark "Calmar! Would " from the battles "ble in war; nei "art thou chang "advise to fly! F "Calmar's ghost. was like the thu return to this seen "his blast with jo 66 praise." This i Homer; who, no he expresses with soon as he had he

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his gallant behavi rejoin the rest of t It is a great adv is not local and ter cient poets; which after the superstiti

the general current of a superitis imagination in all Countries. The description of Fingal's airy hall, in the poem called Berrathon, and of the agent of Malvina into it, deserves particular notice, as remarkably noble and magnificent. But above all, the engagement of Fingal with the spirit of Loda, in Camic-thura, cannot be mentioned without admiration. I forbear transcrib ing the passage, as it must have drawn the attention of every one who has read the works of Ossian. The of the Scandinavian god; the appearance and the undaunted courage of Fingal, opposed to all the terrors speech of that awful spirit; the wound which he receives, and the shriek which he sends forth," as rolled into himself, he rose upon the wind; are full of the most amazing and terrible majesty. I know no passage more sublime in the writings of any uninspired author. The fiction is calculated to aggrandize the bero, which it does to a high degree; nor is it so unatural or wild a fiction, as might at first be thought. According to the notions of those times, supernatural beings were material, and consequently vulnerable. The spirit of Loda was not acknowledged as a deity by Fa; he did not worship at the stone of his powers bely considered him as the god of his enemies as a local deity, whose dominion extended no than to the regions where he was worshipped abad, therefore, no title to threaten him, and no d to his submission. We know there are poetical precedents of great authority for fictions faily as extra and if Homer be forgiven for making Diomed c and wound in battle the gods whom that chief self worshipped, Ossian surely is pardonable for making his hero superior to the god of a foreign terri

of Final with the spint and, in aid in eisht description of Final's ming there, it is als eching the ty is the cin paste of pin talimation of Chan's Low the reader, that in the shok The beer sull ddds of calling bow by the Inda mwadhame de off superst

ithstanding the poetical advantages which I cribed to Ossian's machinery, I acknowledge d have been much more beautiful and perfect, author discovered some knowledge of a Supreme Although his silence on this head has been ac1 for by the learned and ingenious translator, in probable manner, yet still it must be held a conle disadvantage to the poetry. For the most and lofty ideas that can embellish poetry, are I from the belief of a divine administration of verse and hence the invocation of a Supreme or at least of some superior powers, who are conas presiding over human affairs, the solemnireligious worship, prayers preferred, and assismplored on critical occasions, appear with great in the works of almost all poets, as chief ornaof their compositions. The absence of all such us ideas from Ossian's poetry, is a sensible blank the more to be regretted, as we can easily imahat an illustrious figure they would have made the management of such a genius as his; and nely they would have been adapted to many sins which occur in his works.

er so particular an examination of Fingal, it were S$ to enter into as full a discussion of the conduct mora, the other epic poem. Many of the same ations, especially with regard to the great chaistics of heroic poetry, apply to both. The high however, of Temora, requires that we should ass it by without some remarks.

e scene of Temora, as of Fingal, is laid in Ireand the action is of a posterior date. The sub5, an expedition of the hero, to dethrone and publoody usurper, and to restore the possession of ingdom to the posterity of the lawful prince; an taking worthy the justice and heroism of the great

1

candinavian tongue. The manners and the superstitions of the inhabitants, are tinct from those of the Highlands and western isles of Scotland. Their an gs too, are of a different strain and character, turning upon magical incanta devocations from the dead, which were the favourite subjects of the old Runic They have many traditions among them of wars, in fermer times, with the

nts of the western islands,