Ossian Collection > Prospectus of a work to be intitled The lives of the Caledonian bards

9
' Liiath, mar fhireun an adhair —
* 'San ioma ghaoth, na platha fo fgiathaibh, — .
' Shuibhail an Breach aillidh,
' S na aite, tha 'n Ceathach ciar dhubh —
* Tuille ni mairrean do GhoU ;
* Ach mairraidh e \n fonn nan Tend ;
* Ni ]i amhuil a's ceo air an f hrois,
* Cliu treife nan Treun Laoch .'
'Tranjlation by Dr Smith —
' Bvit a few moments on their eagle pinion
pafs ; the Sun fhuts his eye of Hght ; the blaft
whirls that way his ruflling courfe, and a dark
mift is all that remains of the gay form It is
all, O Gaul ! that remains of thee ! — But thy
memory, Chief of Fingal's heroes fliall remain.
No cloud that fhall pafs away on its own gray
wings, is thy fame.' — Gaul, p, lyo.
Thefe facred fragments, fo ufeful to help our
refearches, like Sybil leaves, offer themfelves
now to our poffefTion. It is prudence to feize
them, ere they be placed for ever beyond
our reach.
If it be ufeful to promote improvement, and
introduce new modes of life into the High-
lands, let it be obferved, that thefe expell or al-
ter former manners, which can now only re-
main on the page of hifbory,
Nothing