The cause of the mournful strain in the life of Ossian’s race may have been subjection by a foreign power or the invasion of monks bringing the Christian religion. The poems suggest both. Ossian’s songs must have had a powerful effect upon the people out of whose midst they grew. As long as there were bards this people’s strength was irrepressible. But now we see a patient, subject race trying to revive itself on the renown and happy existence of departed ancestors. When Herder brings to our attention the difference between the mournful tones of Ossian and the arousing strains of Homer, when he reminds us of the differing stages of history commemorated by each, the points entirely unlike at which each writer halts and from which he extracts for his art character, he sets forth a definite theory; namely, that each writer, speaking as his people would speak, characterizes his poetry with the individual content and feeling of his race; that each race has its personality, and each spontaneously expresses this personality in its song: Und Ossian? Es ist ungerecht von einem Baume Früchte zu erwarten, die er, seiner Art nach, nicht bringen kann; Ossian sei an seinem Orte das was Homer war; nur stand er auf einer ganz andern Stelle. In jedem Lande bildet sich der Volksgesang nach innnern und äussern Veranlassungen der Nation. The eye and the ear of these people are wide open to every sight and sound which their physical environment presents. The ear is strong, quick, lasting; the eye keen, embracing, receptive. A certain perceptual power expressed in alertness, boldness, and noble aspect pervaded their entire being. According to Herder’s philosophy, as expressed in _Erkennen und Empfinden_, the senses present to the mind pictures which receive the stamp of feeling and which in turn are given back through some medium of expression. In Ossian, the material for these pictures is first and foremost Nature; Nature robed in the peculiar majesty of the north. The sun is a rash youth, the moon a maiden who has had as sisters other moons in the heavens. The evening star is a lovely boy who comes out, winks, and goes away again. All objects are personified, filled with life and movement, whether it be wind or wave, or even the down of a thistle. As soon as possible the object itself becomes a voice, and we hear moanings of sadness and songs of the harp. These figures are often of the mist, coming out of clouds through which the stars twinkle. Ossian sings, also, deeds, happenings of history, the bygone fates of forefathers, and old legends.