fell! "King of Erin, art thou low!" Let Ossian forget her grief; it wastes the soul of age 30.

30 The abrupt manner in which Ossian quits the story of Sul-malla is judicious. His subject led him immediately to relate the restoration of the family of Conar to the Irish throne; which we may consider effectually done by the defeat and death of Cathmor, and the arrival of Ferad-artho in the Caledonian army. To pursue here the story of the maid of Inishuna, which was foreign to the subject, would be altogether inconsistent with the rapid manner of Ossian, and a breach on unity of time and action, one of the fundamental essentials of the epopaa, the rules of which our Celtic bard had gathered from nature, not from the precepts of critics. Neither did the poet totally desert the beautiful Sul-malla, deprived of her lover, and a stranger, as she was, in a foreign land. Tradition relates, that Ossian, the next day after the decisive battle between Fingal and Cathmor, went to find out Sul-malla in the valley of Lona. His address to her, which is still preserved, I here lay before the reader.

"Awake, thou daughter of Conmor, from the fern-skirted cavern of Lona. Awake, thou sun-beam in deserts; warriors one day must fail. They move forth, like terrible lights; but, often, their cloud is near. Go to the valley of streams, to the wandering of herds, on Lumon; there dwells, in his lazy mist, the man of many days. But he is unknown, Sul-malla, like the thistle of the rocks of roes; it shakes its grey beard in the wind, and falls unseen of our eyes. Not such are the kings of men; their departure is a meteor of fire, which pours its red course from the desert, over the bosom of night.

"He is mixed with the warriors of old, those fires that have hid their heads. At times shall they come forth in song. Not forgot has the warrior failed. He has not seen, Sul-malla, the

The

Evening came down on Moi-lena. Grey rolled the streams of the land. Loud came forth the voice of Fingal: the beam of oaks arose. people gathered round with gladness; with gladness blended with shades. They sidelong looked to the king, and beheld his unfinished joy. Pleasant, from the way of the desert, the voice of music came. It seemed, at first, the noise of a stream far-distant on its rocks. Slow it rolled along the hill", like the ruffled wing of a

fall of a beam of his own: no fair-haired son, in his blood, young troubler of the field. I am lonely, young branch of Lumon, I may hear the voice of the feeble, when my strength shall have failed in years, for young Oscar has ceased on his field.

The rest of the poem is lost; from the story of it, which is still preserved, we understand, that Sul-malla returned to her own country. Sul-malla makes a considerable figure in another poem of Ossian; her behaviour in that piece accounts for that partial regard with which the poet speaks of her throughout Temora. MACPHERSON.

31 Pleasant, from the way of the desert, the voice of music It seemed, at first, the noise of a stream, far distant on its rocks. Slow it rolled along the hill.] GRAY's Progress of

came.

Poesy.

Now the rich stream of music winds along,

Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,

Through verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign,

Now rowling down the steep amain,

breeze 32, when it takes the tufted beard of the rocks, in the still season of night. It was the voice of Condan, mixed with Carril's trembling harp. They came, with blue-eyed Ferad-artho, to Mora of the streams.

Sudden bursts the song from our bards, on Lena: the host struck their shields midst the sound. Gladness rose brightening on the king, like the beam of a cloudy day, when it rises, on the green hill, before the roar of winds 33. He struck the bossy shield of kings; at once they cease around. The people lean forward, from their spears, towards the voice of their land 34.

Headlong impetuous see it pour,

The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. 32 Like the ruffled wing of a breeze.] GRAY's Progress of Poesy.`

With ruffled plumes and flagging wing.

See Fingal, iv. 33.

33 Like the beam of a cloudy day, when it rises on the green hill, before the roar of winds.] The former simile from HoMER inverted. "As the rising wind rolls away the storm of rain, and leaves the white streams to the sun and high hills, with their heads of grass." Supra, 13.

34 Before I finish my notes, it may not be altogether improper to obviate an objection, which may be made to the credibility of the story of Temora as related by Ossian. It may be asked, whether it is probable, that Fingal could perform such

"Sons of Morven, spread the feast; send the night away in song. Ye have shone around me, and the dark storm is past. My people are the windy rocks, from which I spread my eagle

actions as are ascribed to him in this book, at an age when his grandson, Oscar, had acquired so much reputation in arms? To this it may be answered, that Fingal was but very young [Book iv.] when he took to wife Ros-crána, who soon after became the mother of Ossian. Ossian was also extremely young when he married Ever-allin, the mother of Oscar. Tradition relates, that Fingal was but eighteen years old at the birth of his son Ossian; and that Ossian was much about the same age when Oscar, his son was born. Oscar, perhaps, might be about twenty, when he was killed in the battle of Gabhra [Book i.]; so the age of Fingal, when the decisive battle was fought between him and Cathmor, was just fifty-six years. In those times of activity and health, the natural strength and vigour of a man was little abated at such an age; so that there is nothing improbable in the actions of Fingal, as related in this book. MAC

PHERSON.

In this traditionary attempt to reconcile contradictions, the translator forgets, that in the former collection of Gaelic poems, Fingal opposed Caracalla in 208, and Oscar encountered Carausius in 286; an interval of almost eighty years, which renders the grandfather's age upwards of a hundred at the date of his last exploits in the Temora. Fingal, however, before he opposed Caracalla, or married Ros-crána, had already made different voyages to Inistore and Lochlin, and different incursions into the Roman province, in quest of wives or booty; and as the battle of Gabhra is placed by Irish historians in 296, his life must have been prolonged to a patriarchal old age. According to these historians, Fingal was killed in 284, at Ath

wings, when I rush forth to renown, and seize it on its field. Ossian, thou hast the spear of Fingal it is not the staff of a boy, with which he strews the thistle round, young wanderer of the field. No: it is the lance of the mighty, with which they stretched forth their hands to death. Look to thy fathers, my son; they are awful beams. With morning lead Ferad-artho forth to the echoing halls of Temora. Remind him of the kings of Erin; the stately forms of old.

brea, a ford in the river Boyn; though he is represented, by the Irish bards of the fifteenth century, as alive and present at the death of Oscar, on his return from Rome after the battle of Gabhra. Finnius filius Cumalli, Cormaci regis Hiberniæ gener, et militiæ præfectus, Nuado Niveo rege Hiberniæ oriundus, a tribus Urgrenni filiis de Luagniis Temorensibus, in dolo interfectus est apud Ath-brea, Boindi fluminis vadum, anno 283, juxta Dungall. Annales, æra vulgari uno anno superiores. Ogygia, 153. Hence, perhaps, the fictitious Cathmor's kingdom of Atha. The Annals of Dungall are of no more authority than the Annals of Ulster, which place the death of Ossian, the son of Oscar (jugulatio Oisein Mac Oseirg), in 650. But the translator should have adhered to the antediluvian longevity of the Fions in the Red Book of Clanronald; according to which, Ossian lived three hundred years, Gaul four hundred years, and Fingal himself fifty-two tens of years (five hundred and twenty years); and, "in those times of activity and health, the natural strength and vigour of a man were little abated at such an age."