ry
different kind, such as the fictions of Richardson and Sterne. In
England, Scott became the foremost representative of "Goetzism," and Byron
of "Wertherism." The pessimistic, sardonic heroes of "Manfred," "Childe
Harold," and "The Corsair" were the latest results of the "Il Penseroso"
literature, and their melodramatic excesses already foretokened a
reaction.

Among other testimonies to Ossian's popularity in England are the
numerous experiments at versifying MacPherson's prose. These were not
over-successful and only a few of them require mention here. The Rev.
John Wodrow, a Scotch minister, "attempted" "Carthon," "The Death of
Cuthullin" and "Darthula" in heroic couplets, in 1769; and "Fingal" in
1771. In the preface to his "Fingal," he maintained that there was no
reasonable doubt of the antiquity and authenticity of MacPherson's
"Ossian." "Fingal"--which seems to have been the favorite--was again
turned into heroic couplets by Ewen Cameron, in 1776, prefaced by the
attestations of a number of Highland gentlemen to the genuineness of the
originals; and by an argumentative introduction, in which the author
quotes Dr. Blair's _dictum_ that Ossian was the equal of Homer and Vergil
"in strength of imagination, in grandeur of sentiment, and in native
majesty of passion." National pride enlisted most of the Scotch scholars
on the affirmative side of the question, and made the authenticity of
Ossian almost an article of belief. Wodrow's heroics were merely
respectable. The quality of Cameron's may be guessed from a half dozen
lines:

"When Moran, one commissioned to explore
The distant seas, came running from the shore
And thus exclaimed--'Cuthullin, rise! The ships
Of snowy Lochlin hide the rolling deeps.
Innumerable foes the land invade,
And Swaran seems determined to succeed.'"

Whatever impressiveness belonged to MacPherson's cadenced prose was lost
in these metrical versions, which furnish a perfect _reductio ad
absurdum_ of the critical folly that compared Ossian with Homer. Homer
could not be put in any dress through which the beauty and interest of
the original would not appear. Still again, in 1786, "Fingal" was done
into heroics by a Mr. R. Hole, who varied his measures with occasional
ballad stanzas, thus:

"But many a fair shall melt with woe
At thy soft strain in future days,
And many a manly bosom glow,
Congenial to thy lofty lays."

These v