Her bright tears started at another's woes,

While transient darkness on her soul arose.

The chace she lov'd; when morn, with doubtful beam

Came dimly wandering o'er the Bothnic stream,
On Sevo's sounding sides, she bent the bow,
And rouz'd his forests to his head of snow.
Nor mov'd the maid alone, &c.

One of the chief improvements, ou this edition, is the care taken, in arranging the Poems in the order of time; so as to form a kind of regular history of the age to which they relate. The Writer has now resigned them for ever to their fate. That they have been well received by the Public, appears from an extensive sale; that they shall continue to be well received, he may venture to prophecy without the gift of that inspiration, to which poets lay claim. Through the medium of version upon version, they retain, in foreign languages, their native character of simplicity and energy. Ge

nuine poetry, like gold, loses little, when properly transfused; but when a composition cannot bear the test of a literal version, it is a counterfeit which ought not to pass current. The operation must, however, be performed with skilful hands. A Translator, who cannot equal his original, is incapable of expressing its beauties.

LONDON, AUG. 15, 1773.

CONTENTS

OF THE

FIRST VOLUME.

Page.

A Dissertation concerning the Æra of Ossian

A Dissertation concerning the Poems of Ossian

A critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian

Cath-Loda, Part First .