"turns in its strength, and the mist is gone *."But, for the most part, mift is employed as a fimilitude of fome difagreeable or terrible object. "The foul of Nathos was fad, like the fun in the "day of mift, when his face is watery and dim +." "The darkness of old age comes like the mist of "the defert." The face of a ghoft is " pale as "the mift of Cromla §." "The gloom of bat"tle is rolled along as mift that is poured on the valley, when storms invade the filent fun-fhine "of heaven." Fame fuddenly departing, is likened to "mift that flies away before the rust"ling wind of the vale q." A ghoft, flowly vanishing, to "mift that melts by degrees on the "funny hill **." Cairbar, after his treacherous affaffination of Ofcar, is compared to a peftilential fog. "I love a foe like Cathmor," says Fingal, tr * Vol. i. p. 299. There is a remarkable propriety in this comparison. It is intended to explain the effect of foft and mournful mufick. Armin appears difturbed at a performance of this kind. Carmor fays to him, "Why bursts "the figh of Armin? Is there a cause to mourn? The "fong comes with its mufick to melt and please the ear. "It is like foft mift, &c." that is, fuch mournful songs have a happy effect to foften the heart, and to improve it by tender emotions, as the moisture of the mist refreshes and nourishes the flowers; whilft the fadnefs they occafion is only tranfient, and foon difpelled by the fucceeding occupations and amufements of life: "The fun returns in "its ftrength, and the mift is gone." + Vol. i. p. 224. i. p. 75. ** Vol, i. p. 144. Vol. i. p. 227. Vol. i. p. 39. § Vol. Vol. i. p. 117. "his foul is great; his arm is ftrong; his battles "are full of fame. But the little foul is like a cc vapour that hovers round the marshy lake. It "never rifes on the green hill, left the winds meet "it there. Its dwelling is in the cave; and it "fends forth the dart of death *." This is a fimile highly finished. But there is another which is still more ftriking, founded alfo on mift, in the 4th book of Temora. Two factious chiefs are contending; Cathmor the king interposes, rebukes and filences them. The poet intends to give us the highest idea of Cathmor's fuperiority; and most effectually accomplishes his intention by the following happy image. "They funk from the king on either fide; like two columns of morn"ing mift, when the fun rifes between them, on "his glittering rocks. Dark is their rolling on "either fide; each towards its reedy pool." These instances may fufficiently fhew with what richness of imagination Offian's comparisons abound, and at the fame time, with what propriety of judgment they are employed. If his field was narrow, it must be admitted to have been as well cultivated as its extent would allow. As it is ufual to judge of poets from a comparifon of their fimiles more than of other paffages, it will perhaps be agreeable to the reader, to fee how Homer and Offian have conducted fome images of the fame kind. This might be fhewn in many instances. For as the great objects of nature are common to the poets of all nations, and make the * Vol. i. p. 264. general general ftore-house of all imagery, the groundwork of their comparisons muft of course be frequently the fame. I fhall felect only a few of the most considerable from both poets. Mr. Pope's translation of Homer can be of no ufe to us here. The parallel is altogether unfair between profe, and the impofing harmony of flowing numbers. It is only by viewing Homer in the fimplicity of a profe translation, that we can form any comparison between the two bards. The fhock of two encountering armies, the noife and the tumult of battle, afford one of the moft grand and awful fubjects of description; on which all epic poets have exerted their strength. Let us first hear Homer. The following defcription is a favourite one, for we find it twice repeated in the fame words *. "When now the conflicting "hofts joined in the field of battle, then were mutually oppofed fhields, and fwords, and the Arength of armed men. The boffy bucklers "were dashed against each other. The univerfal "tumult rofe. There were mingled the trium phant fhouts and the dying groans of the vic"tors and the vanquifhed. The earth ftreamed "with blood. As when winter torrents, rushing "from the mountains, pour into a narrow valley, "their violent waters. They iffue from a thou"fand fprings, and mix in the hollowed channel. "The diftant fhepherd hears on the mountain, "their roar from afar. Such was the terror and the "fhout of the engaging armies." In another paf *Iliad iv. 446. and II. viii. 60. fage, fage, the poet, much in the manner of Offian, heaps fimile on fimile, to exprefs the vastness of the idea, with which his imagination feems to labour. "With a mighty fhout the hofts engage. "Not fo loud roars the wave of ocean, when dri"ven against the shore by the whole force of the "boisterous north; not fo loud in the woods of "the mountain, the noife of the flame, when "rifing in its fury to confume the foreft; not fo "loud the wind among the lofty oaks, when the "wrath of the ftorm rages; as was the clamour "of the Greeks and Trojans, when, roaring "terrible, they rushed against each other *. To these descriptions and fimiles, we may oppofe the following from Offian, and leave the reader to judge between them. He will find images of the fame kind employed; commonly lefs extended; but thrown forth with a glowing rapidity which characterifes our poet. "As autumn's dark "ftorms pour from two echoing hills, towards "each other, approached the heroes. As two "dark ftreams from high rocks meet, and mix, and "roar on the plain; loud, rough, and dark in bat"tle, meet Lochlin and Inisfail. Chief mixed his "ftrokes with chief, and man with man. Steel clanging, founded on fteel. Helmets are cleft "on high; blood burfts and fmoaks around.— "As the troubled noise of the ocean, when roll "the waves on high; as the laft peal of the thun"der of heaven, fuch is the noife of battle +."As roll a thoufand waves to the rock, fo Swa 66 *Iliad xiv. 393. + Vol. i. p. 18. "ran's i ran's hoft came on; as meets a rock a thousand fo Inisfail met Swaran. Death raises "all his voices around, and mixes with the found "of fhields.-The field echoes from wing to wing, as a hundred hammers that rife by turns on the "red fon of the furnace *.- -As a hundred "winds on Morven; as the streams of a hundred "hills; as clouds fly fucceffive over heaven; or "as the dark ocean affaults the shore of the defart; "fo roaring, fo vaft, fo terrible, the armies mix"ed on Lena's echoing heath +." In feveral of thefe images, there is a remarkable fimilarity to Homer's; but what follows is fuperior to any comparison that Homer ufes on this fubject. "The groan of the people spread over the hills; it ર was like the thunder of night, when the cloud "burfts on Cona; and a thousand ghofts fhriek at once on the hollow wind+." Never was an image of more awful fublimity employed to heighten the terror of battle. Both poets compare the appearance of an army approaching, to the gathering of dark clouds. "As when a fhepherd," fays Homer, "beholds from the rock a cloud borne along the fea by the "weftern wind; black as pitch it appears from "afar, failing over the ocean, and carrying the "dreadful ftorm. He fhrinks at the fight, and "drives his flock into the cave: Such, under the Ajaces, moved on, the dark, the thickened phalanx to the war §."-" They came," fays Vol. i. p. 21. ઃઃ |
