ARGUMENT.

FINGAL, returning from an expedition which he had made into the Roman province, resolved to visit Cathulla king of Inistore, and brother to Comala, whose story is related, at large, in a preceding dramatic poem. Upon his coming in sight of Carric-thura, the palace of Cathulla, he observed a flame on its top, which, in those days, was a signal of distress. The wind drove him into a bay, at some distance from Carric-thura, and he was obliged to pass the night on the shore. Next day he attacked the army of Frothal king of Sora, who had besieged Cathulla in his palace of Carric-thura, and took Frothal himself prisoner, after he had engaged him in a single combat. The deliverance of Carric-thura is the subject of the poem, but several other episodes are interwoven with it. It appears from tradition, that this poem was addressed to a Culdee, or one of the first Christian missionaries, and that the story of the Spirit of Loda, supposed to be the ancient Odin of Scandinavia, was introduced by Ossian in opposition to the Culdee's doctrine. Be this as it will, it lets us into Ossian's notions of a superior being; and shews that he was not addicted to the superstition which prevailed all the world over, before the introduction of Christianity. MAC

PHERSON.

HAST thou left thy blue course in heaven, golden-haired son of the sky!' The west has opened its gates; the bed of thy repose is there. The

1 Hast thou left thy blue course in heaven, golden-haired son of the sky.] MILTON's Translation of the 136th Psalm. And caused the golden-tressed sun

All the day long his course to run;
The horned moon to shine by night,

Amongst her spangled sisters bright.

The "spangled sisters of the moon" were inserted in the preceding poem of Dar-thula, 6. The "golden-tressed sun all the day long his course to run," is now introduced, as "The goldenhaired son of the sky, who has left his blue course in heaven;" with an allusion, perhaps, to the bright-haired sun in COLLINS'S Ode to Evening, which our author immediately proceeds to imi

tate.

2

waves come to behold thy beauty. They lift

their trembling heads 3. They see thee lovely in thy sleep; they shrink away with fear.

Rest,

2 The west has opened its gates. The bed of thy repose is there. The waves come.] COLLINS's Ode to Evening.

While now the bright-hair'd sun,

Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts,

With brede etherial wove,

O'erhang his wavy bed.

His wavy bed. "The bed of his repose, where the waves come to behold his beauty." But "the gates of the west," so frequent in Ossian, is Milton's "Eastern gate, where the great sun begins his state ;" and "the west has opened its gates," is almost literally from SHAKSPEARE, Midsummer Nights Dream, iii. 9. Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,

Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams.

3 They lift their trembling heads.] "Thou tremblest at the gates of the west." Carthon, 49. Eneid, viii. 9.

Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus.

And the sea trembled with her silver light.

Rape of the Lock, ii. 48.

DRYDEN.

The sun-beams trembling on the floating tides. Upon such slight hints are the imitations often constructed.

4 The waves come to behold thy beauty. They lift their trembling heads. They see thee lovely in thy sleep.] Par. Lost, v. 11. He, on his side

Leaning, half-raised, with looks of cordial love,

Hung over her enamoured, and beheld

Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,

Shot forth peculiar graces.

The remainder of the passage, "Awake, my fairest, my espou

in thy shady cave, O sun! 5 let thy return be in joy.

But let a thousand lights arise to the sound of the harps of Selma: let the beam spread in the hall, the king of shells is returned! The strife of Carun is past, like sounds that are no more 7. Raise the song, O bards; the king is returned with his fame!

Such were the words of Ullin, when Fingal returned from war: when he returned in the fair blushing of youth, with all his heavy locks. His blue arms were on the hero; like a light cloud on the sun, when he moves in his robes of

sed, my latest found," was transferred to Dar-thula, 3. Much as I am accustomed to Macpherson's plagiarisms, I am lost in astonishment at such unexpected imitations.

5 Rest in thy shadowy cave, O sun!] Samson Agonistes.
Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.

6 Ossian has celebrated the strife of Crona in a particular poem. This poem is connected with it; but it was impossible for the translator to procure that part which relates to Crona, with any degree of purity. MACPHERSON.

In the first editions, "The strife of Crona is past;" but as Fingal had also returned in Carthon from the strife of Crona, the text was altered in the improved editions, without a correspondent alteration in the notes.

7 The strife of Carun is past, like sounds that are no more.] "For all our days are passed away in thy wrath, we spend our years like a tale that is told." Psalms, xc. 9.