Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

158 CARRIC-THURA.
rushes on my mind. Undisturbed you now sleep together ; in
the tomb of the mountain you rest alone.
" And soft be your rest," said Utha, " children of streamy
Lotha. I will remember you with tears, and my secret song shall
rise; when the wind is in the groves of Tora, and the stream is
roaring near. Then shall ye come on my soul, with all your
lovely grief."
Three days feasted the kings; on the fourth their white sails
arose. The winds of the north carry the ship of Fingal to Mor-
ven's woody land. But the spirit of Loda sat, in his cloud, behind
the ships of Frothal. He hung forward with all his blasts, and
spread the white-bosomed sails. The wounds of his form were
not forgot ; he still feared * the hand of the king.
• The story of Fingal, and the spirit of Loda, supposed to be the famous Odin,
\i the most extravagant fi<ftion in all Ossian's poems. It is not, however, without
precedents in the best poets; and it must be said for Ossian, that he says nothing
but what perfedlly agreed with the notions of the times, concerning ghosts. They
thought the souls of the dead were material, and consequently susceptible of pain.
Whether a proof could be drawn from this passage, that Ossian had no notion of
a divinity, 1 shall leave to others to determine : it appears, however, that he was
of opinion, that superior beings ought to take no notice of what passed among men.