each unequal ridge. But each is silent, gleaming, strewn with boughs and tufts of grass, which shake and whistle to the wind, over their grey seats of frost. So silent shone to the morning the ridges of Morven's host, as each warrior looked up from his helmet towards the hill of the king; the cloud-covered hill of Fingal, where he strode, in the folds of mist. At times is the hero seen, greatly dim in all his arms. From thought to thought rolled the war, along his mighty soul.

Now is the coming forth of the king. First appeared the sword of Luno; the spear half is

"The boy sees it on high, gleaming to the early beam." Supra, iii. ".

The waves of a mountain lake suddenly frozen into the form of ridges, are undoubtedly picturesque; and the only objection to an image," familiar," as it seems, "to those only who reside in a cold and mountainous country," is, that it never yet was realized, as every lake must acquire a plain superficies when frozen. The falling stream of Tromlo, to which the boy turns his ear, might be silent, like Thomson's frozen brook, or dumb cascade, "whose idle torrents only seem to roar;" but the mountain lake, whose billows, to the hunter's carly eye, still seem to roll, implies a physical impossibility; that the waves were seized and arrested as they rose, by a sudden frost, and each billow clothed with ice before it could subside. Such is the result of imitation, when Thomson's descriptions are turned into similies.

suing from a cloud, the shield still dim in mist. But when the stride of the king came abroad, with all his grey, dewy locks in the wind; then rose the shouts of his host over every moving tribe. They gathered, gleaming, round, with all their echoing shields. So rise the green seas round a spirit, that comes down from the squally wind. The traveller hears the sound afar, and lifts his head over the rock 3. He looks on the troubled bay, and thinks he dimly sees the form. The waves sport, unwieldy, round, with all their backs of foam.

3 So rise the green seas round a spirit that comes down from the squally wind. The traveller hears the sound afar, and lifts his head over the rock.] POPE's Iliad, iv. 522.

The distant shepherd, trembling, hears the sound.

"As when from a rock's lofty brow, a shepherd beholds a cloud coming forward along the main, beneath the blast of the western wind. Dark as night it seems afar to his eyes; and rushing over the whitening waves, brings a whirlwind inclosed in its womb." MACPHERSON'S Homer, i. 108.

As the shepherd from the rock's lofty brow, is the traveller lifting his head from the rock; so the cloud, coming forward along the main, beneath the blast of the western wind, over the whitening waves, with a whirlwind inclosed in its womb, is the spirit coming down from the squally wind, while "the green seas rise around him, and the waves sport unwieldy, round, with all their backs of foam. ΕΥΡΕΑ ΝΩΤΑ θαλασσης. HOMER. Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait. MILTON.

Far-distant stood the son of Morni, Duthno's race, and Cona's bard. We stood far-distant; each beneath his tree. We shunned the eyes of the king; we had not conquered in the field. A little stream rolled at my feet: I touched its light wave, with my spear. I touched it with my spear; nor there was the soul of Ossian. It darkly rose, from thought to thought, and sent abroad the sigh.

"Son of Morni," said the king, "Dermid, hunter of roes! why are ye dark, like two rocks, each with its trickling waters ? No wrath gathers on Fingal's soul, against the chiefs of men. Ye are my strength in battle; the kindling of my joy in peace. My early voice has been a plea

I touched its light wave with my spear---nor there was the soul of Ossian. It darkly rose from thought to thought.] "With that inverted spear---which pierced his side." Night Thoughts. Supra, iii. 4. and vi. ".

Tumultuous, where my wrecked desponding thought,
From wave to wave of fancied misery,

At random drove.

See Cathlin of Clutha, 7.

5 Why are ye dark like two rocks, each with its trickling waters.] POPE's Iliad, xvi. 5.

Not faster trickling to the plains below,

From the tall rock the sable waters flow.

sant gale to your ears, when Fillan prepared the bow. The son of Fingal is not here, nor yet the chace of the bounding roes. But why should the breakers of shields stand, darkened, far away ?"

Tall they strode towards the king: they saw him turned to Mora's wind. His tears came down, for his blue-eyed son, who slept in the cave of streams. But he brightened before them, and spoke to the broad-shielded kings,

"Crommal, with woody rocks, and misty top, the field of winds, pours forth, to the sight, blue Lubar's streamy roar. Behind it rolls clearwinding Lavath, in the still vale of deer. A cave is dark in a rock; above it strong-winged eagles dwell; broad-headed oaks, before it, sound in Cluna's wind. Within, in his locks of youth,

A cave is dark in a rock; above it strong-winged eagles dwell; broad-headed oaks before it sound in Cluna's wind.] From MACPHERSON'S Cave.

Behold it opens to my sight,

Dark in the rock, beside the flood;
Dry fern around obstructs the sight;

The winds above it move the wood.-
One tree bends o'er the naked walls,
Two broad-winged eagles hover nigh.

is Ferad-artho 7, blue-eyed king, the son of broad-shielded Cairbar, from Ullin of the roes. He listens to the voice of Condan, as, grey, he bends in feeble light. He listens; for his foes

7 Ferad-artho was the son of Cairbar Mac-Cormac king of Ireland. He was the only one remaining of the race of Conar, the son of Trenmor, the first Irish monarch according to Ossian. In order to make this passage thoroughly understood, it may not be improper to recapitulate some part of what has been said in preceding notes. Upon the death of Conar, the son of Trenmor, his son Cormac succeeded on the Irish throne. Cormac reigned long. His children were, Cairbar, who succeeded him, and Ros-crána, the first wife of Fingal. Cairbar, long before the death of his father Cormac, had taken to wife Bos-gala, the daughter of Colgar, one of the most powerful chiefs in Connaught, and had by her Artho, afterwards king of Ireland. Soon after Artho arrived at man's estate, his mother Bos-gala died, and Cairbar married Beltanno, the daughter of Conachar of Ullin, who brought him a son, whom he called Ferad-artho, i. e. a man in the place of Artho. The occasion of the name was this. Artho, when his brother was born, was absent, on an expedition, in the south of Ireland. A false report was brought to his father, that he was killed. Cairbar, to use the words of a poem on the subject, darkened for his fair-haired son. He turned to the young beam of light, the son of Beltanno of Conachar. Thou shalt be Ferad-artho, he said, a fire before thy race. Cairbar soon after died, nor did Artho long survive him. Artho was succeeded, in the Irish throne, by his son Cormac, who, in his minority, was murdered by Cairbar, the son of Borbarduthul. Ferad-artho, says tradition, was very young when the expedition of Fingal, to settle him on the throne of Ireland, happened. During the short reign of young Cormac, Ferad