Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

112 F I N G A L. Book II.
Like the faint Humming of the Mountain Bee,
Or Flies colleded at the Eve of Day.
But
them in this World ; and he defcribes with peculiar Elegance the Beauty
of the Women. According to the Tale, the Departed retained in the
Midft of their Happinefs a warm AfFedlion for their Country and living
Friends. They fometimes vifited the firft •, and by the latter, as the Bard
exprefies it, they were tranfiently feen in the Hour of Peril, and efpecially
on the near Approach of Death. It was then that at Midnight the Death-
devoted were fuddenly awakened by a ftrange Knocking at their Gates -,
it was then that they heard the undiftinft Voices of their departed Friends
calling them away to the Noble IJle. " A fudden Joy," continues the
Author of the Tale, " ruflied in upon their Minds -, and that pleafing
Melancholy, which looks forward to Happinefs in a diftant Land," It is
worthy of being remarked, that, though thofe who died a natural Death
•were not excluded from the Celtic Paradife, the more pleafant Divifions of
the Flath-innis, were afTigned to Men who fell in War.
Mr. Macpherfon farther obferves, that the animated Defcriptions which
the Druids and Bards gave of the Flath-innis^ rendered the Celtic Nations
carelefs about a tranfitory Life which muft terminate in Happinefs. They
threw away with Indifference the Burden when it galled them, and became
in fome Meafure independent of Fortune in her worft Extreme. They
met Death in the Field with Elevation and Joy of Mind ; they fought
after him with Eagernefs when opprefled with Difeafe, or worn out with
Age. To the fame Caufe, and not to a Want of Docility of Difpoficion
and Temper, we ought to afcribe their fmall Progrefs in the Arts of Civil
Life, before the Phoenicians and Greeks, with their Commerce, and the
Romans, with their Arms, introduced a Tafte for Luxury into the Regions
of the Weft and North.
V. 284.