Blair Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

148 ANCIENT GAELIC BARDS.
habited. I think it, however, right to say, that the last sup-
position appears to me much less probable than the first, seeing
that the aesthetic sense of a primeval people, or what we might
perhaps venture to call, their poetic etiquette, is of too frank a
nature either to admit of or to admire, an undisguised personation
of a fictitious character. People like to see and to embody in their
pristine poetry, not merely truth but fact, that is to say, not
merely a lasting agreement with the principles of thought, feeling,
and action, which are always in nature; but even some actual
manifestation of these, or some actual antagonism to these — some-
thing in fine, which they doubt not has been — so then, I think,
we may safely conclude, that he, who long ages past, first origi-
nated the Ossianic poetry, was, with reverence let it be spoken,
Ossian, the son of Fingal — last of all his race. That he was a great
poet, cannot be questioned — he whose name and whose influence
has survived so long, and spread so wide — who has been imitated
so often, and who first touched that tender note which, in so many
an exquisite fragment, still reaches our hearts so truly.
The first poem which I give, although not in this finer style,
still displays no small skill in the poetic art. It is quite original,
and a very pretty and fresh idea lies at its root. With wonder-
fully delicate touches a variety of personages are presented to us,
and their distinct characters most artfully revealed. Altogether
it is a pleasant little story, and most gracefully told. I give
it in the metre to which we are most familiar in our Lowland
ballads, although that changes slightly the measure of the original.
All other necessary explanations I hope it will give for itself. —
THE SWEETEST SOUND.
Once, when the kingly feast was spread,
On Albin's golden slope,
The bards they sang of bliss and woe,
Despair, and love, and hope.