nerous sentiments and tender affections.* What degrees of friendship, love, and heroism, may possibly be found to prevail in a rude state of society, no one can say. Astonishing instances of them we know, from history, have sometimes appeared: and a few characters distinguished by those high qualities, might lay a foundation for a set of manners being introduced into the songs of the bards, more refined, it is probable, and exalted, according to the usual poetical license, than the real manners of the country. In particular, with respect to heroism; the great employment of the Celtic bards, was to delineate the characters, and sing the praises of heroes. can; Vos quoque qui fortes animos, belloque peremptos, So Lu Phara. 1. 1. Now when we consider a college or order of men, who cultivating poetry throughout a long series of ages, had their imaginations continually employed on the ideas of heroism; who had all the poems and panegyrics which were composed by their predecessors, handed down to *Surely among the wild Laplanders, if any where, barbarity is in its most perfect state. Yet their love-songs, which Scheffer has given us in his Lapponia, are a proof that natural tenderness of sentiment may be found in a country, into which the least glimmering of science has never penetrated. To most English readers these songs are well known by the elegant translations of them in the Spectator, No. 366 and 400. I shall subjoin Scheffer's Latin version of one of them, which has the appearance of being strictly literal. Sol, clarissimum emitte lumen in paludem Orra. Si enisus in sum ma picearum cacumina scirem me visurum Orra paludem, in ea eniterer, ut viderem inter quos amica, mea esset flores; omnes suscinderem frutices ibi enatos, omnes ramos, præsecarum, hos virentes ramos. Cursum nuibum essem secutus quæ iter suun: instituunt versus paludem Orra, si ad te volare possem al s, cornicum alis. Sed mihi desunt alæ, alæ querquedulæ, pedesque anserum pedes plantæve bonæ, quæ deferre me valeant ad te. Satis expectâsti diu; per tot dies, tot dies tuos optimos, oculis tui jucundissimis, corde tuo amicissimo. Quod si longissimè velles effugere, cito tamen te consequerer. Quid firmius validiusve esse potest quam contorti nervi, catenæve ferreæ, quæ durissimè ligant? Sie amor contorquet caput nostrum, mutat cogita tiones & sententias. Puerorum voluntas, voluntas venti; juvenum cogitationes, longæ cogitationes. Quos si audirem omnes, a via, a via justa declinarem. Unum est consilium quod capiam; ita scioviam reetiorem me reperturrum. Schefferi Lapponia, cap. 25. them with care; who rivalled and endeavoured to outstrip those who had gone before them, each in the ceiébration of his particular hero; is it not natural to think, that at length the character of a hero would appear in their songs with the highest lustre, and be adorned with qualities truly noble? Some of the qualities indeed which distinguish a Fingal, moderation, humanity, and clemeney, would not probably be the first ideas of heroism occurring to a barbarous people: but no sooner had such ideas begun to dawn on the minds of poets, than, as the human mind easily opens to the native representations of human perfection, they would be seized and embraced; they would enter into their panegyrics; they would afford materials for succeeding bards to work upon and improve; they would contribute not a little to exalt the public manners. For such songs as these, familiar to the Celtic warriors from their childhood, and throughout their whole life, both in war and in peace, their principal entertainment must have had a very considerable influence in pro pagating among them real manners, nearly approaching to the poetical; and in forming even such a hero as Fingal. Especially when we consider that among their limited objects of ambition, among the few advantages which, in a savage state, man could obtain over man, the chief was Fame, and that immortality which they expected to receive from their virtues and exploits, in the songs of bards*. Having made these remarks on the Celtic poetry and bards in general, I shall next consider the particular ad vantages which Ossian possessed. He appears clearly to have lived in a period which enjoyed all the benefit I just now mentioned of traditionary poetry. The exploits of When Edward I. conquered Wales, he put to death all the Welch bards. This cruel policy plainly shows, how great an influence he im agined the songs of these bards to have over the minds of the people; and of what nature he judged that influence to be. The Welch bards were of the same Celtic race with the Scottish and Irish. Trathal, Trenmor, and the other ancestors of Fingal, are spoken of as familiary known. Ancient bards are frequently alluded to. In one remarkable passage Ossian describes himself as living in a sort of classical age, enlightened by the memorials of former times, which were conveyed in the songs of bards; and points at a period of darkness and ignorance which lay beyond the reach of tradition. "His words," says he, " came only by halves "to our ears; they were dark as the tales of other times, "before the light of the song arose." Ossian, himself, appears to have been endowed by nature with an exquisite sensibility of heart; prone to that tender melancholy which is so often an attendant on great genius; and susceptible equally of strong and of soft emotions. He was not only a professed bard, educated with care, as we may easily believe, to all the poetical art then known, and connected, as he shows us himself, in intimate friendship with the other contemporary bards, but a warrior also; and the son of the most renowned hero and prince of his age. This formed a conjunction of eircumstances uncommonly favourable towards exalting the imagination of a poet. He relates expeditions in which he had been engaged; he sings of battles in which he had fought and overcome ; he had beheld the most illustrious scenes which that age could exhibit, both of heroism in war, and magnificence in peace. For, however rude the magnificence of those times may seem to us, we must remember that all ideas of magnificence are comparative; and that the age of Fingal was an æra of distinguished splendour in that part of the world. Fingal reigned over a considerable territory; he was enriched with the spoils of the Roman province; he was ennobled by his victories and great actions; and was in all respects a personage of much higher dignity than any of the chieftains, or heads of clans, who lived in the same country, after a more extensive monarchy was established. The manners of Ossian's age, so far as we can gather them from his writings, were abundantly favourable to a poetical genius. The two dispiriting vices, to which Longinus imputes the decline of poetry, covetousness and effeminacy, were as yet unknown. The cares of men were few. They lived a roving indolent life; hunting and war their principle employments; and their chief amusements, the music of bards and "the feast of shells." The great object pursued by heroic spirits, was "to re ceive their fame:" that is, to become worthy of being celebrated in the songs of bards: and "to have their name on the four grey stones." To die unlamented by a >-bard, was deemed so great a misfortune as even to disturb their ghosts in another state. "They wander in thick mists beside the reedy lake; but never shall they rise, without the song, to the dwelling of winds." After ⚫ death, they expected to follow employments of the same nature with those which had amused them on earth; to fly with their friends on clouds, to pursue airy deer, and to listen to their praise in the mouths of bards. In such times as these, in a country where poetry had been so long cultivated, and so highly honoured, is it any wonder that among the race and succession of bards, one Homer should arise; a man, who, endowed with a natural happy genius, favoured by peculiar advantages of birth and condition, and meeting, in the course of his life, with a variety of incidents proper to fire his imagination, and to touch his heart should attain a degree of eminence in poetry, worthy to draw the admiraton of more refined ages? The compositions of Ossian are so strongly marked with characters of antiquity, that although there were no external proof to support that antiquity, hardly any reader of judgment and taste could hesitate in referring them to a very remote æra. There are four great stages through which men successively pass in the progress of society. The first and earliest is the life of hunters; pasturage succeeds to this, as the ideas of property begin to take root; next agriculture; and lastly, commerce. Throughout Ossian's poems, we plainly find ourselves in the first of these periods of society; during which, hunting was the chief employment of men, and the principal method of their procuring subsistence. Pasturage was not indeed wholly unknown; for we hear of dividing the herd in the case of a divorce; but the allusions to herds and to cattle are not many; and of agriculture we find no traces. No cities appear to have been built in the territories of Fingal. No arts are mentioned except that of navigation and of working in iron.* Every thing presents to us the most simple and unimproved manners. At their feasts, the heroes prepared their own repast; they sat round the light of the burning oak; the wind lifted their locks, and whistled through their open halls. Whatever was beyond the necessaries of life was known to them only as the spoil of the Roman province; "the gold of the stranger; the lights of the stranger: the steeds of the stranger, the children of the rein." This representation of Ossian's times, must strike us the more, as genuine and authentic, when it is compared with a * Their skill in navigation need not at all surprise us. Living in the western islands, along the coast, or in a country which is every where intersected with arms of the sea, one of the first objects of their attention, from the earliest time, must have been how to traverse the waters. Hence that knowledge of the stars, so necessary for guiding them by night, of which we find several traces in Ossian's works; particularly in the beautiful description of Cathmor's shield, in the 7th book of Temora. Among all the northern maritime nations, navigation was very early studied. Piratical incursions were the chief means they employed for acquiring booty, and were among the first exploits which distinguished them in the world. Even the savage Americans were, at their first discovery, found to possess the most surprising skill and dexterity in navigating their immense lakes and rivers. The description of Čuthullin's chariot, in the 1st book of Fingal, has been objected to by some, as representing greater magnificence than is consistent with the supposed poverty of that age. But this chariot is plainly only a horse-litter; and the gems mentioned in the descrip tion are no other than the shining stones or pebbles, known to be frequently found along the western coast of Scotland. |