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It was like the steel of my sword. Ossian, carry me to my hills! Raise the stones of my renown. Place the horn of a deer; place my sword by my side. The torrent hereafter may raise the earth the hunter may find the steel ", and say, "This has been Oscar's sword, the pride of other years** !" Fallest thou, son of my fame! Shall I never see thee, Oscar! When others hear of their sons, shall I not hear of thee? The moss is on thy four grey stones. The mournful wind is there. The battle shall be fought without thee. Thou shalt not pursue the dark-brown hinds. When the warrior returns from battles,

the Fions it was this that afflicted my heart." Ibid. And in some copies of the Ballad: "No man ever believed that your heart was not a heart of deer's horn, encompassed with steel:" Id. 47. Converted in the Temora into, "My soul, that never melted before. It was like the steel of my sword."

21 The torrent hereafter may raise the earth: the hunter may find the steel.] Virg. Georg. i. 493. See Carric-Thura, 42. Scilicet et tempus veniet, quum finibus illis, Agricola incurvo terram molitus aratro,

Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila.

22 The pride of other years.] Not in the first edition, but adopted from the Night-piece.

Here, hoar tradition tells, repose

Two youths, the dread of Albion's foes,

Of other times the grace and pride.

and tells of other lands; "I have seen a tomb,"

he will say, by the roaring stream, the dark dwelling of a chief. He fell by car-borne Os

car, the first of mortal men 23." I, perhaps, shall

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23 He fell by car-borne Oscar, the first of mortal men.] The whole passage is a painful imitation of Hector's challenge to the Greeks in the Iliad, vii. 86.

ΣΗΜΑ τέ οἱ χεύσωσιν ΕΠΙ ΠΛΑΤΕΙ ΕΛΛΗΣΠΟΝΤΩ.
Καί ποτε τὶς εἴπῃσι καὶ ὀψιγόνων ἀνθρώπων,

Νηῒ πολυκλήϊδι πλέων ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον·

̓ΑΝΔΡΟΣ μὲν τόδε ΣΗΜΑ πάλαι ΚΑΤΑΤΕΘΝΗΩΤΟΣ,
Ον ποτ ̓ ἀριστεύοντα ΚΑΤΕΚΤΑΝΕ ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ, Εκτως
ΩΣ ΠΟΤΕ ΤΙΣ ΕΡΕΕΙ· τὸ δ' ἐμὸν ΚΛΕΟΣ ΟΥΠΟΤ' ΟΛΕΙΤΑΙ.
Greece on the shore shall raise a monument ;

Which, when some future mariner surveys,
Washed by broad Hellespont's resounding seas,
Thus shall he say, a valiant Greek lies here,
By Hector slain, the mighty man of war:
The stone shall tell your vanquished hero's name,
And future ages learn the victor's fame.

POPE.

"When the warrior returns from battles, and tells of other lands; 'I have seen a tomb,' he will say, 'by the roaring stream, the dark dwelling of a chief. He fell by car-borne Oscar, the first of mortal men.' I perhaps shall hear his voice. A beam of joy will rise in my soul." Or, as translated in MACPHERSON'S Homer, i. 198.

"This the memorial remains: The tomb of a chief slain of old: Who, contending in the glorious strife, fell by illustrious Hector's spear." Thus hereafter some warrior will say: And never shall perish my fame.

hear his voice, A beam of joy will rise in my

soul."

Night would have descended in sorrow, and morning returned in the shadow of grief. Our chiefs would have stood, like cold dropping rocks on Moi-lena 4, and have forgot the war; did not the king disperse his grief, and raise his mighty voice. The chiefs, as new-waked from dreams, lift up their heads around 25.

"How long on Moi-lena shall we weep? How long pour in Erin our tears? The mighty will not return. Oscar shall not rise in his strength. The valiant must fall in their day, and be no more known on their hills. Where are our fathers, O warriors! the chiefs of the times of old?

24 Like cold dropping rocks on Moilena.] DRYDEN's Virgil, Georg. ii. 259.

Such as in cheerful vales we view from high,

Which dripping rocks with rowling streams supply,
And feed with ooze.

The original of oozy rocks, which occur so frequently.

25 And raise his mighty voice. The chiefs, as new-waked from dreams, lift up their heads around.] DRYDEN's Ode on St Cecilia's Day.

VOL. II.

Hark, hark! the horrid sound

Has raised up his head,

As awaked from the dead,

And amazed, he stares around.

C

They have set like stars that have shone.

We

only hear the sound of their praise. But they were renowned in their years; the terror of other times. Thus shall we pass away; in the day of our fall. Then let us be renowned when we may; and leave our fame behind us, like the last beams of the sun, when he hides his red head in the west. The traveller mourns his absence, thinking of the flame of his beams 26. Ullin, my aged bard! take thou the ship of the king. Carry Oscar to Selma of harps. Let the daughters of Morven weep. We must fight in Erin, for the race of fallen Cormac. The days of my years begin to fail. I feel the weakness of my arm. My fathers bend from their clouds, to receive their grey-haired son. But before I go hence, one beam of fame shall rise.

as my years begun, in fame.

My days shall end,

one stream of light to bards of

Ullin raised his white sails.

My life shall be other times!"

The wind of the

south came forth. He bounded on the waves toward Selma. I remained in my grief, but my words were not heard. The feast is spread on

26 The traveller mourns his absence, thinking of the flame of his beams.] First inserted in the improved edition 1773.

Moi-lena. An hundred heroes reared the tomb of Cairbar. No song is raised over the chief. His soul had been dark and bloody. The bards remembered the fall of Cormac! what could they say in Cairbar's praise?

Night came rolling down. The light of an hundred oaks arose. Fingal sat beneath a tree *7. Old Althan stood in the midst. He told the tale of fallen Cormac. Althan, the son of Conachar, the friend of car-borne Cuthullin. He dwelt with Cormac in windy Temora, when Semo's son fell at Lego's stream. The tale of Althan was mournful. The tear was in his eye when he spoke.

"The setting sun was yellow on Dora. Grey evening began to descend. Temora's woods shook with the blast of the inconstant wind. A cloud gathered in the west. A red star looked from behind its edge. I stood in the wood alone. I saw a ghost on the darkening air! His stride extended from hill to hill. His shield was dim on his side. It was the son of Semo. I knew

27 Fingal sat beneath a tree.] In the first book annexed to Fingal, "The chief of Etha sat near the king, the grey-haired strength of Usnoth." See above, 6.

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