The fourth morning, from the opening of the poem, comes on. Fingal, ftill continuing in the place, to which he had retired on the preceding night, is feen, at intervals, thro' the mist, which covered the rock of Cormul. The defcent of the king is defcribed. He orders Gaul, Dermid, and Carril the bard, to go to the valley of Cluna, and conduct, from thence, to the Caledonian army, Ferad - artho, the fon of Cairbre, the only perfon remaining of the family of Conar, the firft king of Ire land. The king takes the command of the army, and prepares for battle. Marching towards the enemy, he comes to the cave of Lubar, where the body of Fillan lay. Upon feeing his dog Bran, who lay at the entrance of the cave, his grief returns. Cathmor arranges the army of the Firbolg in order of battle. The appearance of that hero. The general conflict is defcribed. The actions of Fingal and Cathmor. A ftorm. The total rout of the Fir-bolg. The two kings engage, in a column of mist, on the banks of Lubar. Their attitude and conference after the combat. The death of Cathmor. Fingal refigns the fpear of Trenmor to Offian. The ceremonies obferved on that occafion. The Spirit of Cathmor appears to Sul-malla, in the

valley of Lona. Her forrow. - Evening comes on. A feaft is prepared. The coming of Ferad-artho is announced by the fongs of a hundred bards. The poem clofes, with a speech of Fingal,

AN

EPIC POEM.

BOOK EIGHT H.

(1) AS when the wintry winds have seized the waves of the mountain-lake, have seized them, in ftormy night, and cloathed them over with ice; white, to the hunter's early eye, the billows ftill feem to roll. He turns his ear to the found of each unequal ridge. But each is filent,gleaming, ftrewn with boughs

(1) In the course of my notes, I have made it more my business to explain, than to examine, critically, the works of Offian. The firft is my province, as the perfon beft acquainted with them, the fecond falls to the share of others. I shall, however, obferve, that all the precepts, which Ariftotle drew from Homer, ought not to be applied to the compofition of a Celtic bard; nor ought the title of the latter to the epopea to be difputed, even if he should differ in fome circumftances, from a Greek poer. Some allowance should be made for the different manners of nations. The genius of the Greeks and Celte was extremely diffimilar. The firft were lively and loquacious; a manly conciseness of expreffion diftinguished the latter. We find, accordingly, that the compofitions of Homer and Offian are marked with the general and

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and tufts of grafs, which shake and whistle to the wind, over their grey feats of frost. So filent shone to the morning the ridges of

oppofite characters of their respective nations, and, confequently, it is improper to compare the minutia of their poems together. There are, however, general rules, in the conduct of an epic poem, which, as they are natural, are, likewife, univerfal. In these the two poets exactly correfpond. This fimilarity, which could not poffibly proceed from imitation, is more decifive, with refpect to the grand effentials of the срорла, than all the precepts of Aristotle.

Offian is now approaching to the grand catastrophe. The preparations he has made, in the preceding book, properly introduce the magnificence of description, with which the prefent book opens, and tend to show that the Celtic bard had more art, in working up his fable, than fome of those, who clofely imitated the model of Homer. The transition from the pathetic to the fublime is easy and natural. Till the mind is opened, by the first, it fcarcely can have an adequate comprehenfion of the fecond. The foft and affecting fcenes of the feventh book form a fort of contraft to, and confequently heighten, the features of the more grand and terrible images of the eighth.

The fimile, with which this book opens, is, perhaps, the longeft, and the most minutely defcriptive, of any in the works of Offian. The images of it are only familiar to thofe who live in a cold and mountainous country. They have often feen a lake fuddenly frozen over, and strewed with withered grafs, and boughs torn, by winds, from the mountains, which form its banks; but, I believe few of them would be of the mind of the ancient