Ossian Collection > Works of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volumes 3 and 4

A N E P I C P O E M. 261
es me, in my hall, and calls forth nil my
il:eel. It lliall call it forth no more;
OiTian, take thou thy father's ipear. Lift it,
in battle , when the proud ariie.
My fathers, Oflian, trace my flops; my
deeds are plealant to their eyes. Wherever I
come forth to battle, on my field, are their
columns of mift. — — • But mine arm refc ued
the feeble; the haughty found, my rage was
fire. Never over the fallen did mine eye rejoi-
ce. For this *) my fathers fliall meet me, at
the
*) NJC^'e fee, from this pafTiige , that, even in tht;
times of Ofilaii , and , confequently , before the
Introduclion of chriftianlty , they h^id foi:ie idea
cf reward's and punifhments after deith.
Thofe who behaved, in life, with brivery and
virtue , were received , with joy, to the fi'i'y h ills
of their fathers: but the dark in foul, to ufe the
expreffion of the poet, were fpurued aw;iy from
the habitation of heroes, to ivander ort all the
tvinds-. Another opinion , which prevjiled in
thofe times , tended not a little to make iuvlivl-
duals emulous to excel one another in martial
atthlevemcnts. It was thought, that, in the hall
cf clouds, every one had a feat, raih?d above
others 5 iu propoitiou as ho excelltid iHem , iti
R. 3 valour^