Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 2

CATH-LODA:
A POEM.
THE ARGUMENT.
Ossian, after some j^enftral rejection'!, describes the slfuation of Fiil-
gal, ami tlie position of the army of Lochlin. 'Ihe conversation
of Starnoand Swaran. The episode of Cromar-trunav and Foi-
jar-biai'al. Starno, frcwn bis own example, recommends to Swa-
rnn, to .surprise Fingal, who liad retired alone to sl neighbouring
IvW. Vpnn Swaran's refusal, Starno undertakes the enterprise
himself isovercome, and taken prisoner, by Fingal. He is cismiiS-
ed, dCter a severe reprimand for his cruelty.
DUAN THIRD.
TTJ'hence is the stream of years ? Whither do they
V V roll along : Where have t.hey hid, ia mist, their
many coloured sides ? I look into the times of old, but
they seem dim to Ossian's eyes, like reflected moon-
beams, on a distant lake. Here rise the red beams of
war ! There, silent, dwells a feeble race ! They mark,
no years with their deeds, as slow they pass along.
Dweller between the shields ; thou that awakest the
failing soul, descend from thy wall, harp of Cona, with
thy voices three ! Come wi{h that which kindles the
past : rear the forms of old, on their dark-brov/n years !
U-thorna ', hill of storms, I behold thy race on thy
a The bards, who were il ways ready to strpply what they thought
deficient in the poems of Ossian, have inserted a great many inci-
denr.s between the second and third Duan of Cath-loda. Their in-
terpolations are "io ea^ily distins^uished from the genuine remains of
Oi.sian, that ft took me very little time to mark them out, and total-
ly to reject them. If the modern Scot"; and In.sh bards, have shown
any judgment, it is in ascribing their own compositions to names of
an-.itjuitv. for, by that means, they themselves have escaped that
<mnten-,pt, which the authors of such futile performances must ne-
ce>^sarily, have met with, from people of a true taste- I was led in-
to this observation, by an Irisli poem, just nou- before me. It con-
cerns a descent made by Swaran, king of Locnlin, on Trelwd. and b
tl'e werk, says the traditior.al preface preii^d :c it, of Cbii*!} .Mas-