n6 LANDSCAPE AND LITERATURE 



tain scenery. It brought before men's eyes some of 

 the fascination of the mountain-world, more especially 

 in regard to the atmospheric effects that play so large 

 a part in its landscape. It showed the titanic forces 

 of storm and tempest in full activity. And yet there 

 ran through all the poems a vein of infinite melancholy. 

 The pathos of life manifested itself everywhere, now 

 in the tenderness of unavailing devotion, now in the 

 courage of hopeless despair. 



Ossian fascinated some of the greatest men of the 

 time. These Celtic poems, in the words of Matthew 

 Arnold, passed 'like a flood of lava through Europe.' 

 In the deliberate judgement of this acute critic, they 

 revealed c the very soul of the Celtic genius, and have 

 the proud distinction of having brought this soul of 

 the Celtic genius into contact with the genius of the 

 nations of modern Europe, and enriched all our 

 poetry by it.' 1 There can at least be no doubt that 

 they gave a new and powerful impulse to the apprecia- 

 tion of the wilder aspects of nature, and did much to 

 prepare the way for that love of mountain-scenery 

 which has been one of the characteristic developments 

 of the nineteenth century. It is not that in Ossian 

 Highland landscape was deliberately described, but it 

 formed a continually visible and changing background. 

 The prevalent character of the whole range of scenery 

 in the region, and the general impression made by it 

 on the eye and mind, were so vividly conveyed that 

 no one familiar with the country can fail to recognise 

 how faithfully the innermost soul of the West High- 

 lands is rendered. 



Arnold, On the Study of Celtic Literature, 1867, p. 152. 



