Ossian Collection > Temora, an ancient epic poem, in eight books

ic6 T E M O R A:
niy daring lleps. I will confume in wrath * Should I not re-
turn ! the king is without a (on, grey-haired amidft his foes. His
?.rm is not as in the days of old : his fame grows dim in Erin.
Let me not behold him from high, laid low in his latter field. —
But can I return to the king? Will he not afk about his fon? "Thou
oughtert to defend young Fillan." — I will meet the foe. — Green
Inisfail, thy founding tread is pleafant to my ear : I rufh on thy
ridgy hoft, to fhun the eyes of Fingal. 1 hear the voice of the
king, on Mora's miilry top! — He calls his twofonsj I come, my
father, in my grief. — I come like an eagle, which the flame of night
met in the defart, and fpoiled of half his wings.
■f- Distant, round the king, on Mora, the broken ridges of
Morven are rolled. They turned their eyes : each darkly bends,
on
* Here the fenter.ce is defignedly left
unfiniflied by the poet. The fenfe is, that
he was refolved, like a deftroying fire, to
confume Cathmor, who had killed his bro-
ther. In the midft of this refolution, the
fituation of Fingal fuggefts itfelf tc him,
in a very ftrong light. He refolves to
return to a.Tift the king in profecuting
the war. But then his fhame for not
dsfending his brother, recurs to him —
He is determined again to go and find out
Cathmor. — We may confider him, as in
the aft of advancing towards the enemy,
when the horn of Fingal founded on Mora,
and called back his people to his prefence.
— This foliloquy is natural : the refolu-
tions which (o fuddenly follow one ano-
ther, are expreflive of a mind extremely
agitated with forrow and confcious fliame j
yet the behaviour of Oflian, in his execution
of the commands of Fingal, is fo irrepre-
heiifible, that it is not eafy to determine
where he failed in his duty. The truth is,
that when men fail in defigns which they
ardently wi(h to accomplifli, they naturally
blame themfclves, as the chief caufe of their
difappointment. The comparifon, with
which the poet concludes his foliloquy, is
very fanciful ; and well adapted to the ideas
of thofe, who live in a country, where light-
ning is extremely common.
t This fcene is folemn. The poet al-
ways places his chief charafler amidft ob-
jefls which favour the fublime. The face
of