Our young héroes, O warriors, are like the renown of our fathers.-They fight in youth; they fall: their names are in the fong. Fingal is amidst his darkening years. He muft not fall, as an aged oak, across a fecret ftream. Near it are the fteps of the hunter, as it lies beneath the wind. « How has that tree fallen?» He, whiftling, ftrides along. Raife the fong of joy, ye bards of Morven, that our fouls may forget the past.-The red ftars look on us from the clouds, and filently defcend. Soon shall the grey beam of the morning rife, and shew us the foes of Cormac.--Fillan! take the fpear of the king; go to Mora's dark-brown fide. Let thine eyes travel over the heath, like flames. of fire. Obferve the foes of Fingal, and the courfe of generous Cathmor. I hear a diftant found, like the falling of rocks in the defart.But ftrike thou thy shield, at times, that they may not come through night, and the fame of Morven ceafe.-I begin to be alone, my fon, and I dread the fall of my renown. The voice of the bards arofe. The king leaned on the shield of Trenmor.- Sleep defcended on his eyes; his future battles rofe in his dreams. The hoft are fleeping around. Dark-haired Fillan obferved the foe. His fteps are on a diftant hill; we hear, at times, his clanging shield. This book opens, we may fuppofe, about midnight, with a foliloquy of Offian, who had retired, from the rest of the army, to mourn for his fon Ofcar. Upon hearing the noife of Cathmor's army approaching, he went to find out his brother Fillan who kept the watch, on the hill of Mora, in the front of Fingal's army. In the converfation of the brothers, the epifode of Conar, the fon of Trenmor, who was the first king of Ireland, is introduced, which lays open the origin of the contests between the Caël and Firbolg, the two nations who first possessed themselves of that Ifland. Offian kindles a fire on Mora; upon which Cathmor defifted from the defign he had formed of furprising the army of the Caledonians. He calls a council of his chiefs; reprimands Foldath for advifing a night-attack, as the Irish army were fo much fuperior in number to the enemy. The bard Fonar introduces the ftory of Crothar, the ancestor of the king, which throws further light on the hiftory of Ireland, and the original pretenfions of the family of Atha, to the throne of that kingdom. The Irish chiefs lie down to reft, and Cathmor himself undertakes the watch. In his circuit, round the army, he is met by Offian. The interview of the two heroes is defcribed. Cathmor obtains a promife from Offian, to order a funeral elegy to be fung over the grave of Cairbar; it being the opinion of the times, that the fouls of the dead could not be happy, till their elegies were fung by a bard. Morning comes. Cathmor and Offian part; and the latter, cafually meeting with Carril the fon of Kinfena, fends that bard, with a funeral fong, to the tomb of Cairbar, |