III. Thoughts fill'd my mind And my defire, Wing'd with impatient fire, So fhall we quickly end our pleasing pain: With decent motion walking o'er the plain, Look yonder, where Could I but know, amid what flowers, Or in what shade she stays, The gaudy bowers, With all their verdant pride, Their bloffoms and their fprays, Which make my mistress disappear, And her in envious darknefs hide, I from the roots and bed of earth would tear. III. Upon the raft of clouds I'll ride, O' th' ravens I would borrow wings, And all the feather'd inmates of the sky: The ftork and fwan their pinions will not lend, Or will by that kind conduct me befriend. Enough, enough! thou haft delay'd The best of days that crown the year, V. What ftronger is than bolts of fteel? Love is ftronger far than it; Upon the head in triumph fhe doth fit; And doth control The thought and foul. VI. A youth's defire is the defire of wind; All his effays Are long delays; No iffue can they find. Away fond counfellors, away, No more advice obtrude: I'll rather prove The guidance of blind love; To follow you is certainly to ftray: One fingle counfel, tho' unwife, is good. In the Scandinavian manners here defcribed is difco. Book I. vered a ftriking resemblance to thofe defcribed by Offian. And as fuch were the manners of the Scandinavians in the firft ftage of fociety, it no longer remains a wonder, that the manners of Caledonia fhould be equally pure in the fame early period. And now every argument above urged in favour of Offian as a genuine hiftorian has its full weight, without the leaft counterpoife. It is true, that Caledonian manners appear from Offian to have been ftill more polished and refined than thofe of Scandinavia; but that difference may have proceeded from many caufes, which time has buried in oblivion. I make no apology for infifting fo largely on Scandinavian manners; for they tend remarkably to fupport the credit of Offian, and confequently to ascertain a fact extremely interefting, that our forefathers were by no means fuch barbarians as they are commonly held to be. All the inhabitants of Britain were of Celtic extraction; and we have reafon to believe, that the manners of Caledonia, were the manners of every part of the island, before the inhabitants of the plains were enflaved by the Romans. The only circumftance peculiar to the Caledonians, is their mountainous fituation: being lefs expofed to the oppreffion of foreigners, and farther removed from commerce, they did longer than their fouthern neighbours preferve their manners pure and untainted. I have all along confidered the poems of Offian merely in an historical view. In the view of criticifm they have been examined by a writer of diftinguished tafte (n); and however bold to enter a field where he hath reaped laurels, I imagine that there ftill remain fome trifles for me to glean. Two of these poems, Fingal and Temora, are regular epic poems; and perhaps the fingle inftances of epic poetry moulded into the form of an opera. We have in thefe two poems both the Recitativo and Aria of an Italian opera'; dropped indeed in the translation, from, difficulty of imitation. Offian's poems were all of them compofed with a view to mufic; (n) Doctor Blair, profeffor of Rhetoric in the college of Edin. burgh. though in the long poems mentioned it is probable, that the airs only were accompanied with the harp, the recitative being left to the voice. The poems of Offian are fingular in another refpect; being probably the only work now remaining that was compofed in the hunter ftate. Some fongs of that early period may poffibly be remaining, but nothing like a regular work. One may advance a step farther, and pronounce, with a high degree of probability, that Fingal and Temora are the only epic poems that ever were compofed in that state. How great must have been the talents of the author, befet with every obftruction to genius, the manners of his country alone excepted; a cold unhofpitable climate, with fuch deformity on the face of the country as fcarce to afford a pleasing object; and he himself abfolutely illiterate! One, advancing ftill farther, may venture boldly to affirm, that such a poem as Fingal or Temora never was compofed in any other part of the world under such disadvantageous circumftances. The Though permanent manners enter not regularly into the present sketch, I am however tempted to add a few words concerning the influence of foil upon the difpofition of man, in order to fhow the wifdom of Providence, which fits the ground we tread on, not only for fupplying our wants, but for improving our manners. ftupidity of the inhabitants of New Holland, mentioned above, is occafioned by the barrenness of their foil, yielding nothing that can be food for man or beast. Day and night they watch the ebb of the tide, in order to dig fmall fish out of the fand; and fleep in the intervals, without an hour to fpare for any other occupation. People in that condition must for ever remain ignorant and brutish. Were all the earth barren like New Holland, all men would be ignorant and brutish, like the inhabitants of New Holland. On the other hand, were every portion of this earth naturally fo fertile as fpontaneoolly to feed all its inhabitants, which is the golden age figured by poets, what would follow? Upon the former fuppofition, man would be a meagre, patient, and timid animal: upon the latter fuppofition, he would be pampered, lazy, Book I.. and effeminate. In both cafes, he would be ftupidly ignorant, and incapable of any manly exertion, whether of mind or body. But the foil of our earth is more wifely accommodated to man, its chief inhabitant. Taking it general, it is neither so fertile as to fuperfede labour, nor fo barren as to require our whole labour. The laborious occupation of hunting for food produced originally fome degree of industry: and though all the industry of man was at first neceffary for procuring food, cloathing, and habitation; yet the foil, by skill in agriculture, came to produce plenty with lefs labour, which to fome afforded fpare time for thinking of conveniencies. A habit of induftry thus acquired excited many to beftow their leisurehours upon the arts, proceeding from ufeful arts to fine arts, and from these to the sciences. Wealth, accuinulated by induftry, has a wonderful influence upon manners: feuds and war, the offspring of wealth, call forth into action friendship, courage, heroifm, and every focial virtue, as well as many felfish vices. How like brutes do we pass our time, without once reflecting on the conduct of Providence operating even under our feet! Diverfity of manners, at the fame time, enters into the plan of Providence, as well as diverfity of talents, of feelings, and of opinions. Our Maker hath given us a tafte for variety; and he hath provided objects in plenty for its gratification. Some foils, naturally fertile, require little labour: fome foils, naturally barren, require the extremity of labour. But the advantages of fuch a foil are more than fufficient to counterbalance its barrennefs: the inhabitants are fober, induftrious, vigorous; and confequently courageous. fo far as courage depends on bodily ftrength *. The disadvantages of a fertile foil, on the contrary, are more than fufficient to counterbalance That a barren country is a great fpur to industry, appears from Venice and Genoa in Italy, Nuremberg in Germany, and Limoges in France. The fterility of Holland required all the industry of its inhabitants for procuring the neceffaries of life; and by that means chiefly they become remarkably industrious. Cambden afcribes the fuccefs of the town of Halifax in the cloth-manufacture, to its barren foil. |