Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

Book IV. An EPIC POEM. 91
to light is mine ! All further thought away ! I
rulh forth, on eagle wings, to feize my beam of
fame. In the lonely vale of ftreams, abides the
narrow * foul. Years roll on, feafons return,
-but he is fllll unknown. In a blaft comes cloudy
death, and lays his grey head lo'.v. His ghoft is
folded in the vapour of the f^nny field. Its
courfe is never on hills, nor molly vales of
wind. So fliall not Cathmor depart. No boy
in the field was he, who only marks the bed of
• An indolent and unwarlike life was held in extreme
contempt. Whatever a philofopher may fay, in praife of
quiet and retirement, I am far from thinking, but they weaken
and debafe the human mind. When the faculties of the foul
are not exerted, they lofe their vigour, and low and circum-
fcribed notions take the place of noble and enlarged ideas.
Aftion, on the contrary, and the viciflitudes of fortune which
attend it, call forth, by turns, all the powers of the mind,
and, by exercifing, ftrengthen them. Hence it is, that in
great and opulent ftater, when property and indolence are
fecured to individuals, we feldom meet with that llrength of
mind, which is fo common in a nation, not far advanced in
civilization. It is a curious, but juft, obfervation ; that great
kingdoms feldom produce great charaders, which mull be al-
together attributed to that indolence and diflipation, which arc
the infeparable companions of too much property and fecurity.
Rome, it is certain, had more real great men within it, when
its power was confined within the narrow bounds of Latium,
than when its dominion extended over all the known world ;
and one petty ftateof the Saxon heptarchy had, perhaps, as
much genuine fpirit in it, as the two Eritilh kingdoms united.
As a Hate, we are much more powerful than our anceflors, but
yve would lofe by comparing individuals with them.
roes.