OSSIFICATION 



OSTEND 



655 



people. But there lie parts company with it. 

 Gaelic literature supplies material for epics and 

 dramas ; but the epic and dramatic, as literary 

 forms, were unknown to the people. The dim and 

 shadowy characters of Macpherson are in sharp 

 contrast to the clear-cut features of the Gaelic 

 heroes. Rarely does this author make a definite 

 statement of fact ; but when he does, as when, 

 for example, he arms the old Gaels with lows and 

 arrows, he blunders hopelessly. Macpherson is 

 the most vague and abstract of writers : Gaelic 

 poets are wearisome in detail, and revel in the 

 concrete. In the opening of Book iii. of Cathloda, 

 the author inquires regarding the origin and issue 

 of things ; but he is indebted for his answer rather 

 to Bishop Berkeley than to the son of Fionn. 



Macpherson was not a Gaelic scholar, and the 

 fact is considered conclusive proof of his inability 

 to compose the Gaelic text of Ossian. Tl>e only 

 Gaelic printed in the author's lifetime was Temora, 

 Book viL OminH was published in all the lan- 

 guages of Europe liefore he appeared in his own. 

 And when at length the great edition of 1807 did 

 appear, there were Gaelic texts for only one- half 

 of the poems, and for about three-fourths of the 

 matter published by Macpherson in English forty- 

 five years previously, tor the others, no 'origi- 

 nal,' ancient or modern, has ever yet been found. 

 And it must be allowed that this truncated O&iinn 

 does not show to advantage in his native garb. 

 The Gaelic -speaking people have never known 

 him. There is not a single line of these Gaelic 

 texts which can l>e proved to have been committed 

 to writing before Macpherson "s day. The diction 

 is essentially modern. The loan-words are numer- 

 ous, several of them borrowed from English. The 

 idioms and constructions are colourless, and show 

 traces of classical training rather than of the turns 

 of phrase characteristic of native authors. The 

 go-called blank verse in which the poems are written 

 is unknown to Gaelic poetry. Tne archaic ortho- 

 graphy of the seventh book of Temora was adduced 

 by Dr Clerk of Kilmallie as proof of the anti- 

 quity of the writing. But in his frequent use 

 of the tennes (c, j>, t}, instead of the medue (y, tl, 

 b), Macpherson merely followed Alexander Mac- 

 donald, who published his own poems twelve years 

 previously. By the same gifted man he was led 

 into the blunder of making </''"'", 'sun,' a mas- 

 culine noun, contrary to invariable Gaelic usage, 

 which has the suu as well as the moon of the 

 feminine gender. 



The truth seems to l>e that these so-called trans- 

 lations were essentially the compositions of James 

 Macpherson, and that the Gaelic texts were pre- 

 pared with or without aid from his friends, but 

 now and when we do not now know. The only 

 man who could explain things died and made no 

 sign. One regrettable consequence of this famous 

 episode in the history of Gaelic literature still 

 remains. To many persons the discrediting of 

 James Macpherson means the blotting out of ex- 

 istence of an extensive and interesting literature 

 the heroic literature of the Gael. 



See the Poemt of Otiian (1762-63) ; Brooke's Reliquti 

 of Onelie Poetry ( 1789 ) ; Ouian ( 1807 ) ; Trantaetiom of 

 the Oiuiaaic Society of D,Min(6 vols. 186t-6l) ; Popular 

 Tola of the Went Hvihlnrvlt (1860-62): Dean of Li- 

 mnre'i Book (1862); Clerk's Ottian (1870) ; Leabhar no. 

 Ffinne (1872); Folk and Bern Tale from AriiylUhire 

 (1890); Windisch, Iritclie Texte (1880); &*rhr. fiir 

 'i' utwkciAU., vol. liii.; Academy, February 1891 ; William 

 Sharp' B Introduction to the centenary edition of Ossian 

 ) ; and book* noted at MACPHER8OS ( JAMES). 



Ossification is the formation of bone. Most 

 liiimanliotii-s an- first represented by cartilage, which, 

 by a i 'implicated series of changes, becomes trans- 

 formed into bone. The bones of the vault of the 



cranium and the face, part of the clavicle, and the 

 ' sesamoid ' bones occurring in tendons, on the 

 other hand, are developed from fibrous tissue, 

 without passing through a cartilaginous stage, 

 and are distinguished as membrane-bones. In the 

 larger bones of the limbs at least three centres of 

 ossification are found, one in the shaft, and one at 

 each extremity. Growth of the bone takes place 

 mainly at the lines between these elements, which 

 long remain cartilaginous. Bony union becomes 

 complete in each situation at a tolerably definite 

 age (in some not till about twenty-five ; see BONE). 

 True Ossification sometimes occurs as a morbid 

 process ; but in many cases the term is incorrectly 

 used (especially in the case of blood-vessels see 

 under ARTERIES) to designate a hard calcareous 

 deposit, better called calcification, or calcareotn 

 dcijeneration, in which the characteristic micro- 

 scopic appearances of true bone are absent. In 

 one sense the osseous tissue that is formed in 

 regeneration of destroyed or fractured bones (see 

 FRACTURES) may be regarded as due to a morbid, 

 although a restorative action. Hypertrophy of 

 lione is by no means rare, being sometimes local, 

 forming a protuberance on the external surface, in 

 which case it is termed an exostosis ; and some- 

 times extending over the whole bone or over several 

 bones, giving rise to the condition known as hi/jicr- 

 ostosis. Again, true osseous tissue occasionally 

 occurs in parts in which, in the normal condition, 

 no bone existed, as in the dura mater, in the so- 

 called permanent cartilages (as those of the larynx, 

 libs, iVe. ), in the tendons of certain muscles, and 

 in some forms of tumours. The peculiar causes of 

 the osseous formations which are unconnected with 

 bone are not known. 



Ossoli. See FULLER (SARAH MARGARET). 



Ossory, a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church 

 of Ireland, embraces the county of Kilkenny and 

 parts of King's and Queen's Counties. The bishop 

 lias his cathedral at Kilkenny. There is an Ossory 

 parliamentary division in Queen's County. 



Ostade, ADRIAN, painter and engraver, was 

 born at Haarlem in December Kill), and in that 

 city he died, 27th April 1085. His teacher was 

 Franz Hals. Country dancing-greens, farm-yards, 

 stables, the interiors of rustic hovels and houses, 

 and beer-shops are the places which he loves to 

 paint ; and his persons are for the most part 

 coarse peasants, ugly, sordid, dirty, ragged. Vigour 

 and close observation, with skilful management of 

 lights, are perhaps his most noticeable character- 

 istics ; and humour and poetic appreciation are not 

 unfrequently present. About 1039 he fell under 

 the influence of Rembrandt's style. He was a pro- 

 lific painter, and his works are to be found in the 

 museums and collections of the Netherlands, Ger- 

 many, Austria, Russia, France, and England. See 

 a work by Bode (Vienna, 1881 ). ISAAC OSTADE, 

 brother of Adrian, also a painter, was born at 

 Haarlem in 1021, and died at Amsterdam in 1049. 

 Until 1044 he worked in the style of his brother, 

 but then struck out a path for himself, and ex- 

 celled in roadside scenes, winter landscapes, village 

 street life, and similar subjects. 



OstashkofT. a town of Russia, stands on the 

 south-east of Lake Seliger, 107 miles \V. by N. of 

 Tver. It is one of the chief centres in Russia for 

 the making of boots and shoes. Pop. 9905. 



Oslcml. a fashionable watering-plnce in the 

 Belgian province of West Flanders, on the Gerpian 

 Ocean, 77 miles by rail \VN\V. of Brussels. Its 

 Difjue, or sea-wall, 3 miles long, 40 feet high, and 

 35 yards broad, forms a favourite promenade, as 

 also do the two Estacailes, or wooden piers, pro- 

 jecting on both sides of the harbour's entrance. 

 Two spacious floating basins for the Dover mail- 



