Ossian Collection > Fingal

A P O E iU 125
the praHe of unhappy Moina. Call her ghoil:,
with yoLir longs, to our hills ; that flie may refl:
with the fair of Morven, the fun-beams of other
tlays, and the delight of heroes of old. — I have
feen the walls * of Balclutha, but they were dc-
folate. The fire had refounded in the halls : and
the voice of the people is heard no more. Tlic
Ibeam ofCiutha was removed from its place, by
the fall of the walls. — The thiille fliook, there,
its lonely head : the mofs whirled to the v.'ind.
The fox looked out, from the windows, the rank
grafs of the wall waved round his head. — Defo-
Jate is the dwelling of Moina, filence is in the
houfe of her fathers. — Raife the fong of mourn-
ing, O bards, over the land of {grangers. They
have but fallen before us :. for, one day, v/e mull
fall. — Why doil: thou .build the hall, fon of the
winged days-? Thou lookell: from thy towers to-
day; yet a few years, and the blaft of the de fart
comes; it howls in thy empty court, and whlfLlcs
Found thy haif-worn fhield. — And let the blaft of
the deflirt come ! vre rnall be renowned in our
day. The mark of my arm fhail be in the battle,
and my name in the fong of bards. — Raife the
fong ; fend round the fhell : and let joy be heard
in my hall. — When thou, fun of licaven, /hall
fail; if thou flialt fall, thou mighty light I if thy
G 3 brightnefs
count of its^many drgrefTions from the fabjed, all Vv'hich
are in a lyric meafiire, as this fong of Fingal. Fingal is
celebrated by the Irilli hiftorians for his wifdom in m?,king
lav/s, his poetical genius, and his forcknovv-ledge of e-
vents. OTlaherty goes fo far as to fay, that FIngars
laws were extant in his own time.
* The reader may compare this paffage with the
three laft verfes of the 13th chapter of Ifaiah, where the
prophet foretels the deilniaion of Babylon,