Ossian Collection > Fingal, an ancient epic poem

228 The SONGS
hind the fhips of Frothal. He hung forward
with all his blafls, and fpread the white-bofomed
fails.- The wounds of his form were not for-
got ; he ftill feared * the hand of the king.
The S O N G S of S E L M At.
STAR of the falling night! fair is thy light
in the weft I thou lifteft thy unfhorn head
from thy cloud : thy fleps are ftately on thy hill.
What doft thou behold in the plain ? The ftormy
winds
* The ftory of Fingal and the fpiiit of Loda,
/uppofed to be the famous Odin, is the moll extra-
vagant fiction in all OfTian's poem.s. It is not, how-
ever, v/ithout precedents in the befl: poets ; and it
muft be faid for OfTian, that he fays nothing but
what perfedtly agreed with the notions of the times,
concerning ghofts. They thought the fouls of the
dead were material, and confequently fufceptible of
pain. \Vhether a proof could be drawn from this
paflage, that Offian had no notion of a divinity, I
ihall leave to others to determine : it appearc, how-
tver, that he was of opinion, that fuperior beings
ought to take no notice of whatpafled among men.
-f This poem fixes the antiquity of a cuftom,
Vvhich is well known to have prevailed afterv/ards,
m the north of Scotland, and in Ireland. The bards,
ut an annual feafl, provided by the king or chief, re-
peated their poems, and fuch of them as were
thought, by him, worthy of being preferved, were
careiully taught to their children, in order to. have
them tranfmitted to pofterity. It was one of
thofe occiifiOns that attbrded the fubjecl of the pre-