Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

ISA A DISSERTATION CONCERNING
military glory, peculiar to that time of life; He
had sketched this in the description of his own
son Oscar ; but as he has extended it more fully
in Fillan, and as the character is so consonant to
the epic strain, though, so far as I remember,
not placed in such a conspicuous light by any
other epic poet, it may be worth while to attend
a little to Ossian's management of it in tliis in-
stance.
Fillan was the youngest of all the sons of
Fingal; younger, it is plain, than his nephew
Oscar, by whose fame and great deeds in war,
we may naturally suppose his ambition to have
been highly stimulated. Withal, as he is younger,
he is described as more rash and fiery. His
first appearance is soon after Oscar's death, when
he was employed to watch the motions of the
foe by night. In a conversation with his bro-
ther Ossian, on that occasion, we learn that it
was not long since he began to lift the spear.
" Few are the marks of my sword in battle ; but
f my soul is fire." He is with some diificulty
restrained by Ossian from going to attack the
enemy; and complains to him, that his father
had never allowed him any opportimity of sig-
nalizing his valour. "The king hath not re-
" marked my sword ; I go forth with the crowd ;
" I return without my fame." Soon after, when
Fingal, according to custom, was to appoint one