Ossian Collection > Ossian, his principal poems

30G APPENDIX.
beauty and elegance. In his countenance appears the bard,
descending with slow and gentle step. Another rose up in
the south, who strenuously pled my cause in the battle, and
who clothed me in my own garb, at the time of reciting the
tale of the brave. A brave hero in Lismore prepared his
arms ; he threw the spear, and made a gap in the head of
the filthy bear without virtue. A dauntless clerk stood up
in the high fort,* in the cause of the bards against the
wolf; he threw the real dog upon his back, and the back
of his head in the mire. Another strenuous champion
is coming forth ; strong is his step, and mild his voice, and
he shall overthrow all those who have culumniated my
people.
And now, since the two great men are fallen, their
armies are pursued in their flight, and they shall never
obtain the victory in the battle, nor merit praise in the
strife.
Ossian of victorious deeds, pleasant to my sorro^vful
heart is every distressful tale that comes from thy mouth ;
although thy enemies are become many, for them it is vain
to struggle ; victory shall never bless a society without love
and without good luck.
Return thou to thy rest, spirit of Ossian, and weep no more
for those who are gone ; as long as the sun and moon shall
rema in, they shall not be numbered among the dead ; and
until all things under the sun shall change, gentle bard of
many tales, thy power and thy fiime shall not fail, and the
remembrance of thee shall not be cut off from among the
people, f
* Edinburgh.
t The great controversy on tlie authenticit)^ of the poems of
Ossian gave rise to the foregoing allegory, in which the author has