part company. These Carlyle has called "Wertherism" and "Götzism"[32]
_i.e._ sentimentalism and mediaevalism, though so mild a word as
sentimentalism fails to express adequately the morbid despair to which
"Werther" gave utterance, and has associations with works of a very
different kind, such as the fictions of Richardson and Sterne. In
England, Scott became the foremost representative of "Götzism," 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: