CRITIQUE ON OSSIAN'S TEMORA, Showing its great resemblance to the Poems of Homer, Virgil and Milton.

PART I.

I shall proceed to criticise the poem of Temora without any pre

vious comment: to show whether it was the work of an author of the name of Ossian, or of Mac Pherson, would lead to an endless discussion concerning a matter of little or no moment; it would be saying what has been so frequently said before; and it is likewise entirely foreign to my present purpose. Neither shall I argue that as a poem it is entitled to the appellation of epic; but certainly to maintain that Temora does not hold that high rank, is, as Addison has said of Milton's divine performance, merely to assert that Adam is not Æneas, nor Eve Helen.

Let us then examine the poem before us, according to the laws which have been laid down by Aristotle, and if upon such an en quiry it shall be found to be by no means imperfect either in the fable or characters, the sentiments or language, no one will then surely withhold from it that high degree of praise which it so justly merits. Homer in his Odyssey has been compared by Longinus to the setting sun, who still retains his greatness, when the ardor of his rays is gone. Ossian in Temora is not unlike Homer in the Odyssey. He here possesses less fire than in Fingal, but he is more varied, more pathetic, and more magnificent; and displays more of that delicacy of sentiment, which to me is in many instances preferable to the fervor of a young poet. In every view we can take of him, he appears to advantage. His coincidence with the rules of the Ronan critic is remarkably striking. He does not begin his poem with a cold recital of all the circumstances, which happened previous to the subject, which he particularly wishes to celebrate; but according to Horace's rule, and with a very superior degree of the poetic art, he dives at once into the midst of affairs. From his attention to matters of so trivial á nature, one would be led to suppose that the poem is of moderate date, and that the author had really studied the precepts of Aristotle. But our doubt upon the subject will vanish, and this circumstance will appear less remarkable, when we investigate the source from which the laws were drawn. Aristotle found that admiration of the highest nature was lavished upon Homer and accordingly began to consider, what in reality it was that called forth this admiration which he perceived was so justly bestowed. These laws, then, were drawn from Homer. Homer wrote after nature, and so did Ossian. And there can now remain no longer any wonder, that such a similarity should reign between two geniuses who copied the same great original.

7.

The fable of an epic poem should be one, great and interesting.

Unity may be observed in all those sublime performances, which have so long continued to attract the attention, and command the approbation, of the learned world. The poems, however, of both Homer and Virgil have been thought deficient in this essential quality. Undoubtedly some of the episodes of their most excellent poems upon strict examination would be found to be excrescences. Milton, the chief of English poets, and at least second in merit," is not entirely free from blemishes of this kind. His episodes, on his loss of sight, on marriage, and a few other topics, can never be shown to have the slightest connexion with his subject; but still it must be allowed that they are errors, into which we would rather wish that he had fallen. Ossian in this respect, if not quite perfect, is nearly so; but should the unity of Temora not have been preserved in every small particular, we can show, if it is not in our power to defend him, that he is at least equal to those, who in former ages have carried off the palm.

The unity is more complete than that which arises from relating the exploits of a hero. It is a unity which lies in the subject. The event celebrated is the dethroning of a usurper, and the replacing of the proper "heir upon the Irish throne. Every circumstance related in it seems to have a stronger connexion with the subject than another. Blair has remarked, in his criticism upon Fingal, that in that poem the unity of time and place is as apparent as the unity of subject. The remark is applicable to both the heroic poems of our author. Ossian's pensive and melancholy mind has in both given the preference to that season of the year "when the trees shake their dusky heads in the breeze." As it is autumn when the poem opens, so it is autumn when the poem ends. This was a season more peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of Temora. Fingal was in the last of his days, and all nature seems to fade with him. Morlena of the streams is continued the scene of action throughout. It was here "that Oscar fell forward on his shield" at the feast of Cairbar, and it is where "the hundred streams of Morlena shone" that the last transaction in the poem was performed, the combat of Fingal and Cathnior. Whatever imperfections, in short, may be imputed to him, in whatever other respects he may be excelled, few will be found to surpass him in this greatest of all requisites to an heroic poem.

The episodes which are introduced are natural, interesting, and perhaps may be considered as the most finished pieces of Ossian. The bards, after the labors of the day were at an end, were employed to amuse their chief by the recital of glorious actions. The songs, which are introduced into the poem, are not pieces relative of any event which the poet may think proper, but have a reference either to the actor then spoken of, or to the action, which is related. In the sequel of the poem it is by means of these songs, that we are

admitted into the history of the death of the young king Cormac. Fingal's enemies have as great an attention paid to their history, as his friends. One of the greatest beauties in Virgil is the description which he has given of the rise of the Carthaginian statė, Milton too has greatly added to the excellence of his work by describing the fall of the wicked angels and giving an account of the inferual councils. Ossian likewise has no less merit in recording the wars between the Firbolg and the Cael. The most exquisite beauty in the poem perhaps is the circumstance of the episode, in which the origin of the former tribe, the enemies of the Caledonian colony, is described, is the circumstance of its running parallel with the principal action.

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Unity naturally iniplies that the subject should be complete.. It must have a beginning, a middle and an end. Virgil settles Eneas in Italy, after he has escaped an unaccountable number of most perilous and serious dangers, both by sea and land. The bad effects of the anger of Achilles are laid before us in every nice particular and by the most minute detail. We are made acquainted with its birth; we are shown to what a length of time it was protracted by his indomitable spirit; and we are enabled to trace in the sequel of the poem the dreadful effects, which anger, in a man of such rank as Achilles was, entailed, by its long continuance, upon the Greeks and their descendants. Addison has pointed out in a concise and elegant manner how complete Milton has made the action of his Paradise Lost. "We see it," says he, "contrived in hell, executed on earth, and punished by heaven." The enconsums, which have been bestowed on these three great authors, seem at first view to banish all hopes of superior or equal excellence in succeeding poets: and to deprive them of all expectations of a similar reward. Men, however, of excellent talents and genius conquer all difficulties. Ossian deserves commendation, iu a degree almost equal to Homer, to Virgil and to Milton. Temora is undoubtedly as entire a poem, as either the Iliad, the Eneid, the Iliad, the Eneid, or the Paradise Lost. Cairbar, the chief of the Firbolg, had been led by his cruel intentions to perpetrate a crime, which called for the avenging hand of justice; he had murdered a young king, who had not yet strength to lift the spear. This would have been a sufficient cause of war to the noble and generous mind of Fingal. But he was called upon not only by the voice of justice, but by the ties of friendship and of blood. The poem commences with the landing of the Caledonian hero on the Irish coasts. From this time begin the difficulties, under which a man of less magnanimity than Fingal would have sunk; and by which the poem is made so interesting and affecting. At the outset of the poem, our préjudice in favor of Oscar, the son of Ossian is formed by the poet more effectual in one sentence, than could have been accomplished by a man of less genius in a whole epic poem. Mor-annal beautifully finishes his catalogue of the Fingalian heroes

in the following manner "Hillan bends his bow, the young hunter "of streamy Moruth. But, who is that before them like the ter"rible course of a stream! It is the son of Ossian bright between "his locks! His long hair flows on his back. His dark brows are "half enclosed in steel. His sword hangs loose on his side. His

spear glitters as he moves. I fled from his terrible eyes, king of "high Temora." This description is entirely sufficient to make us put great faith in the courage and skill of Oscar: but the interest excited in the minds of those, acquainted with the other poems of our author, is of so exquisite a nature, that, on his death at the feast of Cairbar, we would begin to dread, could we not repose entire confidence in the great powers of Ossian, that the poem, deprived of so able a support, must now lose much of its beauty, and even become, in soine measure, dull and inanimate. Every circumstance augments the alarm: Cairbar indeed fell with Oscar, but then we are immediately informed that Cathmer had arrived with fresh forces, and was already prepared for the attack. Truly we cannot sufficiently admire the poet's skill in getting rid of a man so destitute of manly courage, and bringing into the field a man of so noble a mind, and such elevated sentiments. Ossian was well aware of the great loss his poem would sustain, deprived of a character such as Oscar's. We are accordingly immediately presented with another young hero, not unlike him, in whom we had so much confided. His brother, Fillan, seems to have been younger than his son, and it is he who now excites all our interest. As the poem draws to a conclusion our apprehensions are gradually increased. Throughout all the poem Gaul, the son of Merni, is represented as Fingal's greatest general. In a battle described near the close of the poem Gaul is wounded and prevented from discharging his duty. Fillan alone prevented him from being deprived of life. At every stroke of the pencil our anxiety has been augmented; but on the present occasion it is almost insurmountable. What then are our fears, when this young oak, to use the language of Ossian, is withered, when the blast shall come and lay his green head low! The poet's only resource was to bring Fingal himself into battle. He indeed was a hero of such renown, that he had never been vanquished. Our anxiety might here then be supposed to cease. But when we begin to reflect that Fingal himself was in the last of his days, and that he came down from his hill to battle with all his grey dewy locks in the wind, our fears are so far from being dispelled, that the interest which we now take in the conclusion is most artfully augmented by the poet. Through such a multitude and such a variety of calamities and dangers does Fingal obtain his admirable design, he at length places Ferad-artho, the young king, upon the throne of his ancestors, after having amply avenged the death of Cormac.

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The second qualification of an epic poem is, that it should be great. Homer, Virgil, and Milton's performances have always been allowed the merit of possessing this quality. From the survey already given of the poem before us, it is sufficiently apparent that Ossian's Temora, should it in this respect fall short of the Eneid and the Paradise Lost, is founded upon an Historical Fable quite great enough for the subject of an epic poem, and equal at least to both the subject of the Iliad and that of the Odyssey. But it is not to be wondered at, that Homer and Ossian should have been surpassed in this particular by their great rivals. They both wrote their poems, when their respective countries were in that state of society, when the arts and sciences are known very little or not at all; it was in that first stage when hunting is the chief employment of men, and when ideas of property, even of the slightest nature, those which arise from pasturage, were scarcely known. In countries so little advanced in civilization the only subject which presents itself to a poet, as worthy of celebration, is the heroic deeds of some chieftain; and accordingly both flomeraud Ossian have taken subjects of this nature. Virgil and Milton lived in more refined periods of society. Homer and Ossian were the earliest poets in their native countries, if we except the songs of the bards in each nation. But before the time at which either Virgil or Milton began their works, many other previous attempts had been made in their respective countries. The arts and sciences too, in both Rome and England, had arrived at a very high pitch of perfection. The one, in short, lived in the Augustan age, the most learned and most philosophic, the most polished and most polite æra of the Roman state. The other was born in the time of Charles 1. and paid the last debt of nature in that of Charles 11. previous to which the world had been enriched by the philosophic productions of the two Bacons, the poetical compositions of Shakespeare, Spenser and Cowley, the researches of John Napier, of Merchiston, the works of the Lord Chief Justice Coke, with the productions of many other great men, whose illustrious names are the greatest ornaments to Great Britain. As Virgil and Milton then lived in such refined times, they had of course a larger field from which to choose the subjects of their poems: and certainly it can be a matter of no great surprise that they have chosen actions of greater importance, and consequently more proper for the subject of an epic poem, than those, which men, whose countries had scarcely emerged from the savage state, had it in their power to select.

Pursuing, however, our intended plan, we shall find that, if the poem before us is not so great in the whole, as these other productions, it still follows the rules of Aristotle; and it must, at least, be agreed that it is as great in all its parts. The fable is neither too long, nor too short; but occupies that precise space of time, that it is neither NO. XXVIII. Cl. Jl. VOL. XIV.

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