OSSIAN. 
father’s fword. Whofe {word is that? he will fay: and 
the foul of his mother is fad.” 
The melancholy tendernefs of Offian’s poetry is alfo dif- 
played in the ae Pale in which the bard contrafts 
his prefent and his form te. 
among a thoufand bards. But age is 
now on i; tongue, and my foul has failed. I hear fome- 
times the fhouts of bards, and learn their pleafant fong. 
But memory fails on my mind; I hear the call of yor 
They fay, as they pafs along, why does Offian fing? foon 
fhall he lie in the narrow houfe, and no bard fhall raife his 
fame. Roll on, ye dark brown years; for ye bring no joy 
the tomb open to Offian, for his 
oe Ru iftles there, and the diftant mariner fees the diftant 
tre 
Bete the fublime and tender paflages with which the 
poems of Offian abound, they are diltinguifhed by their 
fap and lively defcriptions, in which, often by a fingle 
circumftance, the fa ure is rendere mort natural and im- 
thefe peculiar traits of his difpofitio and genius: this re- 
mark is moft particularly exemplified in the iellowng paf- 
age. 
‘T have feen the walls of Balclutha, but they were de- 
folate. The fire had refounded within the halls; and the 
voice of the people is now heard no more m of 
Clutha was removed from its place, by the fall of the walls ; 
- thiftle fhook there its lonely head; the mofs whiftled to 
wind. The fox looked out of the window: the rank 
at waved round his head. Defolate is a Toe of 
oina. Silence is in the houfe of her father 
We have room to particularife only one more of the ex- 
cellencies of Offian’s poetry ; that is, the fkill and effet with 
which he manages his fimilies: the following is an inftance. 
<< Wilt thou not liften, fon of the rock, to the fong of 
Offian? My foul is full of other times ; the joy of my youth 
returns. Thus the fun appears in the weft, after the ‘fteps 
of his brightnefs have moved behind a ftorm. The green 
hills lift their dewy heads. The blue ftreams rejoice in the 
vale. The aged hero comes forth on his ftaff; and his grey 
hair ete on-the bea 
1 the whole, the seats of Offian’s poetry mutt be al- 
ne to be great; it has alfo great faults: to thofe whofe 
judgment and tafte have been difciplned by ftudy, and 
formed on the models of antiquity, the faults will feem to 
counterbalance the beauties; but in the opinion of the mul- 
world 
tained, in his poffeffion; an n the poems were 
branded as forgeries, iitead of filencing the {ceptics and 
Vou. XXV. 
accufers by the produ€tion of thefe manufcripts, he main- 
tained a Beep and obdurate filence. Befides t 
ighlands, or to 
name the perfons from ahen e ehad received them, there 
were other fufpicious circumftances affixed : thefe poems. 
The literati of England, and in an efpecial manner 
Dr. Johinfon, pronounced them forgeries ; and the latter was 
confirmed in his opinion (if confirmation. he needed 
very vague, gen 
minutely and aes eramined, t before 
Tagg sabi hated - e objections to the authenticity of 
thefe poems may s flated and arran 
1. It is highly ae that at the time when Offian 
lived, he could compofe fuch long and regular poems, -with- 
out the ufe and affiftance of letters ; and the moft fturdy and 
Zz 
bably very oreeolen certainly not o 
poems which Macpherfon Sagres in his name, and whic 
Dr. Blair, in his Differtation, has proved t oe written in 
exa€t conformity to the rules ‘which ‘Ariftotle any down for 
the compofition of an epic pcem. 
2. Even allowing that nes long and regular aia could 
mpofed without the ufe of letters not 
Highlands, 
than in the words i in whic ume ha 
to Gibbon. 
fong of Radnor Ledbrog. which is amo oat e longeft 
pieces of Gothic poetry, fuppofed to be ve ditionally pre 
ferved, extends but to twenty-nine o€tavo ftanzas, of fhor 
lines; and in order to relieve the memory in this and oe 
Gothic poems, there is sale a burden, Befidess, talinds 
4 
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