clouds, and filently defcend. Soon fhall the grey beam of the morning rife, and fhew us the foes of Cormac. Fillan! my fon, take thou the fpear of the king. Go to Mora's dark-brown fide. Let thine eyes travel over the heath. Obferve the foes of Fingal: Obferve the course of generous Cathmor. I hear a diftant found, like falling rocks in the defart. But ftrike thou thy thield, at times, that they may not come thro' night, and the fame of Morven cease. I begin to be alone, my fon. I dread the fall of my rehown!" THE Voice of bards arofe. The king leaned on the shield of Trenmor. Sleep defcended on his eyes. His future battles arofe in his dreams. The hoft are fleeping around. Dark-haired Fillan obferves the .foe. His fteps are on a diftant hill. We hear, at times, his clanging shield. ARGUMENT to Book II. This book opens, we may fuppofe, about midnight, with a foliloquy of Offian, who had retired, from the rest of the army, to mourn for his fon Ofcar. Upon hearing the noise of Cathmor's army approaching, he went to find out his brother Fillan, who kept the watch, on the hill of Mora, in the front of Fingal's army. In the conversation of the brothers, the episode of Conar, the fon of Trenmor, who was the first king of Ireland, is introduced, which lays open the origin of the contefts between the Caël and Firbolg, the two nations who first poffeffed themselves of that ifland. Offian kindles a fire on Mora; upon which Cathmor defifted from the defign he had formed of furprifing the army of the Caledonians. He calls a council of his chiefs; reprimands Foldath for advifing a night-attack, as the Irish army were fo much fuperior in number to the enemy. The bard Fönar introduces the story of Crothar, the ancestor of the king, which throws further light on the history of Ireland, and the original pretenfions of the family of Atha, to the throne of that kingdom. The Irish chiefs lie down to reft, and Cathmor himself undertakes the watch. In his circuit, round the army, he is met by Offian. The interview of the two heroes is described. Cathmor obtains a promise from Offian, to order a funeral elegy to be fung over the grave of Cairbar; it being the opinion of the times, that the fouls of the dead could not be happy, till their elegies were fung by a bard. Morning comes. Cathmor and Offian part; and the latter, cafually meeting with Carril the fon of Kinfena, fends that bard, with a funeral song, to the tomb of Cairbar. TEM OR A: A N EPIC PO E M. *FA BOOK II. 'ATHER of heroes! O Trenmor! High dweller of eddying winds! where the darkred thunder marks the troubled clouds! Open thou thy ftormy halls. Let the bards of old be near. Let them draw near, with songs and their half-viewlefs harps. No dweller of misty valley comes! No hunter unknown at his ftreams! It is the carborne Ofcar, from the fields of war. Though this book has little action, it is not the leaft important part of Temora. The poet, in feveral episodes, runs up the cause of the war to the very fource. The first popula tion of Ireland, the wars between the two nations who origi nally poffeffed that island, its first race of kings, and the revo lutions of its government, are important facts, and are delivered by the poet, with fo little mixture of the fabulous, that one cannot help preferring his accounts to the improbable fictions of the Scotch and Irish hiftorians. The Milefian fables bear about them the marks of a late invention. To trace their le gends to their fource would be no difficult task; but a dif quifition of this fort would extend this note too far. Sudden Sudden is thy change, my fon, from what thou wert on dark Moilena! The blaft folds thee in its fkirt, and ruftles through the fky! Doft thou not behold thy father, at the ftream of night? The chiefs of Morven fleep far-diftant. They have loft no fon: But ye have loft a hero, chiefs of refounding Morven! Who could equal his ftrength, when battle rolled against his fide, like the darkness of crowded waters? Why this cloud on Offian's foul? It ought to burn in danger. Erin is near with her hoft. The king of Selma is alone. Alone thou fhalt not be, my father, while I can lift the spear! I ROSE, in all my arms. I rose and liftened to the wind. The fhield of Fillan * is * We understand, from the preceding book, that Cathmor was near with an army. When Cairbar was killed, the tribes who attended him fell back to Cathmor; who, as it afterwards appears, had taken a refolution to furprize Fingal by night. Fillan was dispatched to the hill of Mora, which was in the front of the Caledonians, to obferve the motions of Cathmor. In this fituation were affairs when Offian, upon hearing the noife of the approaching enemy, went to find out his brother. Their converfation naturally introduces the epifode, concerning Conar the fon of Trenmor, the firft Irish monarch, which is fo neceffary to the understanding the foundation of the rebellion and ufurpation of Cairbar and Cathmor. Fillan was the youngest of the fons of Fingal, then living. He and Bofmina, mentioned in the battle of Lora, were the only children of the king, by Clatho the daughter of Cathulla king of Inis-tore, whom he had taken to wife, after the death of Ros-crana, the daughter of Cormac Mac-Conar king of Ireland. not |