J. F. Campbell Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

158 SPECIMENS OF
Fly, fly, foul fiend, and leave the mangled world
Too long thy prey, ah me I shall hapless man
For ever, ever feel thy iron rod ?
Come, Peace, come, life-befriending^ lovely fair,
A thousand graces 'tend thy placid reign.
Stretch thy soft pinions o'er a happy world
Draw the sharp weapon from the warrior's hand,
And chace the jarring monster down to hell. —
Let Science raise on high her drooping head.
And Muses tune the soul-delighting lay
In vain the poet glides in melting streams,
In vain attunes his soul to tuneful woe j
Deaf is the ear of Discord, dim the eye
Of war, and happiness far flies from earth.
Come, Contemplation, then, my lonely fairy
Solemnly walking, unaffected grace !
Absorpt from life, I join thy sable train.
And tium my aching eye from dismal war.'
;?. Exiraci from Canto IV.
And nov/ the War-inciting clarions sound
And neighing coursers paw the trembling ground
At once they move majestically slow
To pour their headlong force upon the foe.
Then stop ; and awful, solemn silence reigns
Along the sable walls and frowning plains ;
When wrapt in all the majesty of state,
Adorn'd with all the honours of the great,
The king resplendent on his royal car,
■Shines awful on the iron front of war :