402 COSMOS. 



be gifted with voice, form a striking contrast with the still life 

 of the silent plants, and constitute the ever-animated principle 

 of the landscape. " Ancient poetry delights in considering 

 natural life with human eyes, and thus lends to animals and 

 sometimes even to plants, the senses and emotions of human 

 beings, giving at the same time a fantastic and child-like in- 

 terpretation of all that had been observed in their forms and 

 habits. Herbs and flowers that may have been gathered and 

 used by gods and heroes, are henceforward named after them. 

 It seems, on reading the German Animal epos, as if the fra- 

 grance of some ancient forest were wafted from its pages. "* 



We might formerly have been disposed to number amongst 

 the memorials of the Germanic poetry of natural scenery, the 

 remains of the Celto-Irish poems, which for half a century 

 flitted like vapoury forms from nation to nation under the 

 name of Ossian ; but the charm has vanished since the literary 

 fraud of the talented Macpherson has been discovered by his 

 publication of the fictitious Gaelic original text, which was a 

 mere retranslation of the English work. There are un- 

 doubtedly ancient Irish Fingal songs, designated as Finnian, 

 which do not date prior to the age of Christianity, and, pro- 

 bably, not even from so remote a period as the eighth century ; 

 but these popular songs contain little of that sentimental deli- 

 neation of nature, which imparted so powerful a charm to the 

 productions of Macpherson. f 



We have already observed that, although sentimental and 

 romantic excitement of feeling may be considered as in a high 

 degree characteristic of the Indo- Germanic races of Northern 

 Europe, it cannot be alone referred to climate, or, in other 

 words, to a longing, increased by protracted deprivation. We 

 have already remarked how the literature of the Indians and 

 Persians, which has been developed under the genial glow of 

 southern climes, presents the most charming descriptions, not 

 only of organic but of inanimate nature ; of the transition from 



* Jacob Grimm, in Reinliart Fucks, 1834, s. ccxciv. (Compare also 

 Christian Lassen, in his Indiscke Altertliumskunde, bd. i. 1843, s. 296.) 



+ (Die Undchtheit der Lieder Ossiaris und des Macpherson'schen 

 Ossiaris insbesonderc, von Talvj, 1840.) The first publication of -Ossian 

 by Macpherson was in 1760. The Finnian songs are, indeed, heard in 

 the Scottish Highlands, as well as in Ireland, but they have been carried, 

 according to O'fteilly and Drummond, from the latter country to Scot- 

 land. 



