Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

no F I N G A L. Book II.
And left alone, difconfolate remains,
265 Without a Friend to mitigate her Pains.
But who is fhe, that like a Sun-beam goes
Before the black Battalions of the Foes ?
It is that Light of Beauty, CrugaFs Love,
The fair Degrena to Diftraftion drove !
270 Upon the Wind her Hair diflievel'd flies,
H^r Voice is fhrill, and red her ftreaming Eyes :
She feeks in vain her fallen Lord to find !
An empty Form he rides upon the Wind ;
Or on the barren Mountain lonely keeps,
275 In fome green Grotto, while the Tempeft fleeps ;
Thence
V. 274. Or on the barren Mountain lonely keeps, iSc.'] Offian here gives
us an Account of the Situation of Souls in a feparate State ; which, if not
entirely happy, is at leaft more agreeable to Reafon than the Notions of
the ancient Greeks and Romans concerning their departed Heroes. Mr,
Macpherfon, in his Introduftion to the Hiftory of Great Britain and Ireland,
fays that our Anceftors feigned the Refidence of the Blefled to be in a
Place furrounded with Temped?, in the Weftern Ocean, called Flath-innis,
or Noble Ifland. This Aflertion he grounds upon an ancient Highland Tale.
That