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dwelling) of Fingal. There the hero fits in darkness; his airy fpear is in his hand. His fhield half-covered with clouds, is like the darkened moon; when one half ftill remains in the wave, and the other, looks fickly on the field.

His friends fit around the king, on mist; and hear the fongs of Ullin: he ftrikes the halfviewlefs harp; and raifes the feeble voice. The leffer heroes, with a thousand meteors, light the airy hall. Malvina rifes, in the midft; a blush is on her cheek. She beholds the unknown faces of her fathers, and turns afide her humid eyes.

Art thou come fo foon, faid Fingal, daugh ter of generous Tofcar? Sadness dwells in the

halls

*) The defcription of this ideal palace of Fingal is very poetical, and agreeable to the notions of those times, concerning the ftate of the deceased, who were fuppofed to pursue, after death, the pleasures and employments of their former life. The fituation of Offian's heroes, in their feparate ftate, if not entirely happy, is more agreeable, than the notions of the ancient Greeks concerning their departed heroes. See Hom. Odyff.

L. II.

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halls of Lutha. My aged fon *) is fad. hear the breeze of Cona, that was wont to lift thy heavy locks. It comes to the hall, but thou art not there; its voice is mournful among the arms of thy fathers. Go with thy rustling wing, o breeze! and figh on Malvina's tomb. It rifes yonder beneath the 'rock, at the blue ftream of Lutha. The maids **) are departed to their place; and thou alone, o breeze, mourn eft there.

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But who comes from the dufky weft, fupported on a cloud? A fmile is on his gray, watry face; his locks of mift fly on the wind: he bends forward on his airy fpear: it is thy father, Malvina! Why fhineft thou, fo foon, on our clouds, he fays, o lovely light of Lutha! But thou wert fad, my daughter, for thy friends were paffed away. The fons of little men ***) were in the hall; and none

re

*) Offian, who had a great friendship for Malvina, both on account of her love for his fon Ofcar,· and her attention to his own poems.

**) That is, the young virgins, who fung, the funeral elegy over her tomb.

***

**) Offian, by way of disrefpect, calls thofe, who fucceeded the heroes whofe actions he celebrates,

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remained of the heroes, but Offian king of fpears.

And doft thou remember Offian, car-borne Tofcar*) fon of Conloch? The battles of our youth were many; our fwords went together to the field. They faw us coming like two falling rocks; and the fons of the ftranger fled. There come the warriors of Cona, they faid; their steps are in the paths of the vanquished.

Draw near, fon of Alpin, to the fong of the aged. The actions of other times are in my foul: my memory beams on the days that are paft. On the days of the mighty Toscar, when our path was in the deep. in the deep. Draw near, fon of Alpin',

the fons of little men. Tradition is entirely filent concerning what paffed in the north, immediate ly after the death of Fingal and all his heroes: but it appears from that term of ignominy just mentioned, that the actions of their fucceffors were not to be compared to thofe of the renowned Fingaliaus,

*) Tofcar was the fon of that Conloch, who was alfo father to the lady, whofe unfortunate death is related in the last episode of the fecond book of Fingal,

Alpin, to the last found *) of the voice of Cona.

The king of Morven commanded, and I raifed my fails to the wind. fails to the wind. Tofcar chief of

Lutha ftood at my fide, as I rofe on the darkblue wave. Our courfe was to fea-furrounded Berrathon **), the ifle of many ftorms. There dwelt, with his locks of age, the stately ftrength of Larthmor. Larthmor, who spread the feast of fhells to Comhal's mighty fon, when he went to Starno's halls, in the days of Agandecca. But when the chief was old, the pride of his fon arofe, the pride of fair-haired Uthal, the love of a thousand maids. He bound the aged Larthmor, and dwelt in his founding halls:

Long pined the king in his cave, befide. his rolling fea. Morning did not come to his dwelling; nor the burning oak by night. But

the

*) Offian seems to intimate by this expreffion, that this poem was the laft of his compofition; fo that there is fome foundation for the traditional title of the last hymn of Offian.

**) Barrathón, a promontory in the midst of waves. The poet gives it the epithet of sea - surrounded,, to prevent its being taken for a peninfula in the literal fenfe.

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the wind of ocean was there, and the parting beam of the moon. The red ftar looked on the king, when it trembled on the western wave. Snitho came to Selma's hall: Snitho companion of Larthmor's youth. He told of the king of Barrathon: the wrath of Fingal rofe. Thrice he asíumed the fpear, refolved to stretch his hand to Uthal., But the memory *) of his actions rofe before the king, and he fent his fon and Tofcar. Our joy was great on the rolling fea; and we often half-unfheathed our fwords **). For never before had we fought

alone,

*) The meaning of the poet is, that Fingal temembered his own great actions; and confequently would not fully them by engaging in a petty war against Uthal, who was fo far his inferior in valour and power,

**) The impatience of young warriors, going on their firft expedition, is well marked by their half-drawing their fwords. The modefty of Offian, in his narration of a story which does him so much honour, is remarkable; and his humanity to Ninathoma would grace a hero of our own polifhed age. Though Offian paffes over his own actions in filence, or flightly mentions them; tradition has done ample justice to his martial fame, and perhaps has exaggerated the actions of the poet beyond the bounds of credibility.

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