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The reader will observe in Ross's version here the same fault of 

 which we have had such frequent occasion to complain, the use of 

 unnecessary epithets. Instead of Macpherson's " robe," he gives us 

 "light robe;" instead of "moon," the "full moon;" when half a 

 moon or a crescent would have answered as well. "When its disk be- 

 gins to emerge," is technically astronomic, and not to be compared 

 either in beauty or simplicity, to " its edge heaves white on the 

 view." Heaves is, in this situation, one of those happy picturesque 

 words, of which Ross seems to have had no perception. " From the 

 darkness of its shade to light," leaves us in doubt as to the precise 

 image intended by the poet. Ross says, " the figure unquestionably 

 is that of the moon beginning to emerge from a total eclipse." But 

 he should have remembered that eclipses were objects of terror to the 

 old Caledonians of Ossian's days ; that they thought such pheno- 

 mena portended disastrous changes to the nations, as we learn from a 

 passage of Macpherson, imitated from Milton ; and that, therefore, so 

 judicious a poet as the great Celtic bard could never be so deficient 

 in taste, as to compare his heroine's bosom to the moon emerging 

 from an eclipse, especially when he could say with equal elegance, 

 with not less meaning, and assuredly with far more simplicity, " from 

 the darkness which covers its orb," viz. the shadow of a passing 

 cloud. The attempt to improve on the original is obvious. Macpher- 

 son has some meaning in saying, "the secret look of her eye was 

 his." But what is the object of the other version in saying, in a pa- 

 renthesis, "her eye was like a star?" By the way, this simile is 

 borrowed from the Irish poem of " The Chase," where it is stated 

 that the eye of Guillen's daughter, the fair enchantress, was like a 

 " freezing star." 



We have now proceeded in our comparison of the two versions 

 far enough for our own complete satisfaction, we trust, of our reader's 



H 2 



