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days of Ossian, " overrun with woods/' and abounded with " wolves 

 and bears," against which the natives could defend themselves only 

 by retreating to their caves or to the tops of their hills. In this situ- 

 ation one would think that such a prince as Fingal, who was not only 

 the pattern of valour, but the paragon of wisdom, would exert himself 

 to deliver his subjects from the danger of being devoured by the 

 wolves and the bears, with which his country was infested ; but so 

 fai' is he from doing such a necessary work, that his son Ossian does not 

 once mention the names of those voracious animals, though his know- 

 ledge of them must have furnished him with ideas that, in the way 

 of similes and otherwise, would help him to embellish his poems. 

 Homer, Virgil, and all the other ancient poets that we know of, have 

 frequent allusions to such animals. Ossian alone, of all ancient poets, 

 despises such creatures as unworthy of his muse, even in allusion. 

 For the same reason it is to be supposed he passed over bulls and 

 rams, so as never to make any use of them in his figures or embellish- 

 ments, though other ancient poets have used them to advantage. 

 That he was not unacquainted with bulls, we have reason to know, 

 for in one of the poems he mentions dividing the herd, and talks of 

 a " bull of snow." Why then was he silent in his allusions upon 

 these heads ? Was it because the author, in writing the poems, was 

 afraid that if he did mention them, it would be supposed he did so 

 in imitation of the Irish Ossian, whoever he was, who has frequent 

 allusions to all these animals.? Perhaps Mr. Macpherson thought 

 he had taken sufficient liberties with the Irish bard, in stealing from 

 him the stories, which, from the subject of most of the episodes, and 

 of entire poems, in the Scotch Ossian, and left the poor Irishman in 

 possession of the wolves, bears, and bulls, though he could spare 

 some of them to assist a neighbour in case of necessity. 



This internal evidence, arising from the silence of the author on 



