What a fame was it that these Ossianic bards and heroes sought? To Fingal, Swaran says:
The hunter coming from the hills,
As he rests on a tomb, will say:
Here the mighties, Fingal and Swaran,
Joined battle, with their hundred bands.
Thus will the weary hunter speak
And our fame will abide forever.
In Pindar the same importance is attached to fame. Next to the performance of noble deeds is the renown which springs from them.
Ossian is like Homer and like the Indian. His duans are like the seasons of the year in northern latitudes.
Who are the inhabitants of London and New York but savages who have built cities, and forsaken for a season hunting and war? Who are the Blackfeet and the Tartars but citizens roaming the plains and dwelling in wigwams and tents?
When it comes to poetry, the most polished era finds nothing wanting or that offends its taste in the real poetry of the rudest.
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