in war!---I may fall; but I will be renowned like the race of the echoing Morven *. He food dilated in his place, like a flood fwelling in a narrow vale. The battle came, but they fell bloody was the fword of Oscar.―― The noise reached his people at Crona; they came like a hundred ftreams. The warriors of Caros fled, and Oscar remained like a rock left by the ebbing fea. Now dark and deep, with all his steeds, Caros rolled his might along the little ftreams are loft in his courfe; and the earth is rocking round.Battle fpreads from wing to wing: ten thousand fwords gleam at once in the fky. But why should Offian fing of battles?---For never more, fhall my fteel fhine in war. I remember the days of my youth with forrow; This paffage is very like the foliloquy of Ulyffes upon a fimilar occafion. Ωιμοι εγώ, τί πάθω 3 μεγα μὲν κακὸν, αιχε φέβωμαι, HOм. II. 11. What farther fubterfuge, what hopes remain ? РОРБ. when I feel the weakness of my arm. Happy are they who fell in their youth, in the midst of their renown !---They have not beheld the tombs of their friends or failed to bend the bow of their ftrength.Happy art thou, O Oscar, in the midst of thy rushing blaft. Thou often goeft to the fields of thy fame, where Caros fled from thy lifted fword. DARKNESS COMES on my foul, O fair daughter of Tofcar, I behold not the form of my fon at Carun; nor the figure of Oscar on Crona. The ruftling winds have carried him far away; and the heart of his father is fad. my may BUT lead me, O Malvina, to the found of woods, and the roar of my mountain ftreams. Let the chace be heard on Cona; that I think on the days of other years.---And bring me the harp, O maid, that I may touch it when the light of my foul fhall arise.-Be thou near, to learn the fong; and future times fhall hear of Offian. THE fons of the feeble hereafter will lift the voice on Cona; and, looking up to the rocks, fay, "Here Offian dwelt." They fhall admire the chiefs of old, and the race that are no more: while we ride on our clouds, Malvina, on the wings of the roaring winds. Our voices fhall be heard, at times, in the defart; and we shall fing on the winds of the rock. THE WAR of INIS-THONA*; A POEM. UR youth is like the dream of the hunter on the hill of heath. He fleeps in the mild beams of the fun; but he awakes amidst a ftorm; the red lightning flies around: and the trees fhake their heads to the wind. He looks back with joy on the day of the fun, and the pleafant dreams of his reft! WHEN fhall Offian's youth return, of his ear delight in the found of arms? When fhall I, like Oscar, travel in the light of my feel?-- Inis-thona, i. e. the ifl nd of waves, was a country of Scandinavia subject to its own king, but depending upon the kingdom of Lochlin. This poem is an epifode introduced in a great work compofed by Offian, in which the actions of his friends, and his beloved fon Ofcar, were interwoven.- -The work itfelf is loft, but fome epifodes, and the ftory of the poem, are handed down by tradition. There are fome now living, who, in their youth, have heard the whole repeated. Travelling in the greatnefs of his strength. ISAIAH Ixiii. 1. Come, Come, with your fireams, ye hills of Cona, and liften to the voice of Offian! The fong rifes, like the fun, in my foul; and my heart feels the joys of other times.. BEHOLD. my towers, O Selma! and the oaks of thy fhaded wall :---thy freams found in my ear; thy heroes: gather round. Fingal fits in the midft; and leans on the fhield of Trenmor-his fpear ftands against the wall; he liftens to the fong of his bards.---The deeds of his arm are heard; and the actions of the king in his youth. OSCAR had returned from the chace, and. heard the hero's praife.---He took the shield of Branno from the wall; his eyes were filled with tears. Red was the cheek of youth. His voice was trembling, low. My fpear fhook its: bright head in his hand: he spoke to Morven's king. FINGAL! thou king of heroes! Offian, next to him in war! ye have fought the battle in your youth; your names are renowned in fong. -Ofcar is like the mift of Cona: I appear and vanish.---The bard will not know my name.”-n *This is Branno, the father of Everallin, and grandfather to Ofcar; he was of Irish extraction and lord of the country round the lake of Lego.-His great actions are handed down by tradition, and his hospitality has passed into a proverb. The hunter will not fearch in the heath for my tomb. Let me fight, O heroes, in the battles of Inis-thona. Diftant is the land of my war !--ye fhall not hear of Ofcar's fall. may find me there, and give my fong.---The daughter of the ftranger shall fee my tomb, and weep over the youth that came from afar. The bard fhall fay, at the feaft, hear the fong of Ofcar from the diftant land. Some bard name to the OSCAR, replied the king of Morven ; thou fhalt fight, fon of my fame !---Prepare my dark-bofomed fhip to carry my hero to Inis-. thona. Son of my fon, regard our fame ;--for thou art of the race of renown. Let not the children of ftrangers fay, feeble are the fons of Morven !Be thou, in battle, like the roaring storm: mild as the evening fun in peace.--Tell, Ofcar, to Inis-thona's king, that Fingal remembers his youth; when we ftrove in the combat together in the days of Agandecca. L. THEY lifted up the founding fail; the wind whiffled through the thongs of their mafts. Waves lafhed the oozy rocks: the strength of ocean roared. My fon beheld, from the wave, the land of groves. He rushed into the ropes * Leather thongs were ufed in Offian's time, inftead of echoing |