other nations.

Love among the Greeks and the Romans is a physical and natural necessity; that of the Italians is spiritual; of the French bel-esprit. Ossian's love is of a species that resembles none of them. Sentiment forms its basis; it is therefore tender and delicate, and its language is not witty, but moving. It relates to the senses, but out of these a choice of the purest is made, such as the sight and the hearing hence, it is neither abstract nor gross, but natural and delicate. Ossian often mentions the bosom, and seems to take particular delight in describing it. The descriptions of other poets on this subject approaches to lasciviousness; but this arises from their descriptions being accompanied with such sentiments as indicate that they are not satisfied with the sight only. Not a single expression will be found in all Ossian's poems that relates even to the touch. The result of all this is, that Ossian's love is decent without the affectation of modesty. The reserve of other poets is accompanied with an air of mystery, which is rather an incentive than a restraint. Ossian expatiates with innocent freedom on all the objects of visible beauty, and dwells on them so naturally that he gives no motive for suspicion. These bounds of decency are preserved, because it is deemed proper they should not be trespassed. After the heart and the sight nothing more (in Ossian's idea) can be desired of a beautiful woman.

(29) Line 644, &c. O Connal! speak of war and arms,

And send her from my mind.

Ma tu, fido Conal, parlami d'arme,
Parla di pugne, e fa' m'esca di mente.

What a charming variation of affections and sentiments! What a moving contrast between the husband and the hero! One cannot decide whether to admire most the latter, or to feel for the former.

(30) Line 648. Connal slow to speak replied.

Figlio di Semo, ripigliò Conallo

A parlar lento.

A most appropriate epithet to the prudence and calmness of Connal.

(31) Line 652, &c. Cuthullin! I am for peace,

Till the race of Selma come;

Till Fingal come, the first of men,
And beam like the sun on our fields.

Per la pace son' io, finchè sia giunta
La schiatta del deserto, e che qual sole
L'alto Fingallo i nostri campi irragi.

Here Fingal appears for the fifth time; without him no hopes can be entertained. Cuthullin is a great warrior, yet the safety of Ireland depends on Fingal alone. With this idea the poet in his first book dismisses us.

If such reflections struck the mind of this ingenious critic on the examination of Macpherson's translation, what would he not have said, had he seen the beauties of the original more faithfully delineated?

APPENDIX.

No. I.

Finding that a Gentleman resided in my own immediate neighbourhood, at Thurso, in the County of Caithness, North-Britain, (Captain John Macdonald, of Breakish), who had been much distinguished for his knowledge of Gaelic poetry, and who had furnished Mr. Macpherson with some of the poems which he had translated, I thought it adviseable, judicially to interrogate him upon the subject of Ossian. The evidence he has given, considering his time of life, being now in the 78th year of his age, is peculiarly distinct and satisfactory.

Deposition by CAPTAIN JOHN MACDONALD, now residing at Thurso, in the County of Caithness.

At THURSO, the twenty-fifth day of September, Eighteen Hundred and Five Years.

IN presence of Colonel Benjamin Williamson, of Banniskirk, one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Caithness, compeered, Captain John Macdonald, late of the Inverness Regiment of Fencibles, who being solemnly interrogated, depones :

That he was born in the parish of Sleat, in the Isle of Sky, and was aged seventy-eight years, on the twelfth day of March last, eighteen hundred and five:

That he has heard many of the Gaelic poeins ascribed to Ossian, the son of Fingal:

That when he was about twelve and fifteen years of age, he could repeat from one hundred to two hundred of those poems, of different lengths and number of verses:

That he learned them from an old man, about eighty years of age, who sung them for years to his father, at night, when he went to bed, and in spring and winter, in the morning before he rose :

That at present he remembers only two of any length, each of them relating to a lady, who fled to the Fingalians for protection; also a description of the horses which, it is said, carried the body of Cuchullin to the grave; and that the Reverend John Macdonald, now residing at Buckies, near Thurso, has written down, from his recital, all that he remembers of these poems and verses, a copy of which he herewith subscribes :

That he was well acquainted with the late Mr. James Macpherson; and when he first went to the Isle of Sky, to collect Ossian's poems, that he met with him in Doctor John Macpherson's house in Sleat, and sung many of those poems to him; and that Mr. James Macpherson wrote them down as he repeated them:

That he is the John Macdonald, of Breakish of Strath, in the Isle of Sky, mentioned in Doctor John Macpherson's letter to Doctor Blair, dated twenty-seventh day of November, seventeen hundred and sixtythree, and printed in the Report of the Highland Society of Scotland, Appendix, page 9.

That Fingal, Ossian, Oscar, and the Fingalians in general, were at all times, and without any doubt, reckoned and believed to be of Scotch, and not of Irish extraction:

That Cuchullin was a Scotch chief, and had a house at Dunskaich in the parish of Sleat, in the Isle of Sky. That Dunskaich is built on a round rock, almost surrounded by the sea, and having no access to it but by a drawbridge: That without the entry to the castle, there is a long stone sunk in the ground, to which Cuchullin's dog was tied, except when he was hunting: That the wall of the dun, or castle, is yet above twenty feet high, and strongly built: That he has often been within the said dun:

That the description of the horses and chariot of Cuchullin, which, so far as he recollects, he has given to the Reverend Mr. John Macdonald, alludes to Cuchullin's own funeral, who was killed in Ireland:

That the poem called Cath Loduin, also the poems called Caom-mhala and Carraig-Thura, now printing in Gaelic, by the Highland Society, in London, and a copy of which he has lately had an opportunity of perusing, by means of Sir John Sinclair, Chairman of the Committee of

The description of the car of Cuthullin was probably short and energetic in the poem of Fingal, but was expanded to the length it now is, from another poem describing the same car at the funeral of Cuthullin.