ARGUMENT.

Fingal in his voyage to Lochlin, whither he had been invited by Starno the father of Agandecca, touched at Berrathon, an island of Scandinavia, where he was kindly entertained by Larthmor the petty king of the place, who was a vassal of the supreme kings of Lochlin. The hofpitality of Larthmor gained him Fingal's friendship, which that hero manifested, after the imprisonment of Larthmor by his own son, by fending Offian and Tofcar, the father of Malvina, so often mentioned, to rescue Larthmor, and to punish the unnatural behaviour of Uthal, Uthal was handsome, and, by the ladies, much admired. Nina-thoma, the beautiful daughter of Torthóma, a neighbouring prince, fell in love and fled with him. He proved unconftant! for another lady, whose name is not mentioned, gaining his affections, he confined Nina-thoma to a defart ifland near the coast of Berrathon. She was relieved by Offian, who, in company with Tofcar, landing on Berrathon, defeated the forces of Uthal, and killed him in a fingle combat. Nina-thoma, whofe love not all the bad behaviour of Uthal could erase, hearing of his death, died of grief. In the mean time Larthmor is restored, and Offian and Toscar return in triumph to Fingal.

The poem opens with an elegy on the death of Malvina the daughter of Toscar, and closes with prefages of Offian's death.

BERRATHON:

P

A

E

M.

BEND thy blue courfe, O ftream! round

the narrow plain of * Lutha. Let the green woods hang over it, from their hills: the fun look on it at noon. The thiftle is there on its rock, and fhakes its beard to the wind. The flower hangs its heavy head, waving, at times, to the gale: "Why doft thou awake me, Q gale!" It feems to fay, "I am covered with the drops of heaven? The time of my fading is near the blast that shall scatter my leaves. To-morrow fhall the traveller come; he that faw me in my beauty fhall come. His eyes will fearch the field, but they will not find me." So fhall they fearch in vain, for the voice of Cona, after it has failed in the field. The hunter fhall come forth in the morning, and the voice of my harp fhall not be heard. "Where is the fon of carborne Fingal ?" The tear will be on his cheek! Then come thou, O Malvina, with all thy mufic, come! Lay Offian in the plain of Lutha: let his tomb rife in the lovely field.

Malvina where art thou, with thy fongs, with the foft found of thy fteps? Son + of Alpin art thou near? where is the daughter of Tofcar? H 3 "I paffed,

Lutha, fwift ftream.

† His father was one of Fingal's principal bards, and he had a poetical genius.

"I paffed, O fon of Fingal, by Tor-lutha's molfy walls. The fmoke of the hall was ceafed. Silence was among the trees of the hill. The voice of the chace was over. I faw the daughters of the bow. I asked about Malvina, but they answered not. They turned their faces away: thin darkness covered their beauty. They were like ftars, on a rainy hill, by night, each looking faintly through her mist."

Pleasant be thy reft, O lovely beam! foon haft thou fet on our hill! The steps of thy departure were ftately, like the moon on the blue, trembling wave. But thou haft left us in darknefs, first of the maids of Lutha ! We fit, at the rock, and there is no voice; no light but the meteor of fire! Soon haft thou fet, O Malvina, daughter of generous Tofcar! But thou rifeft like the beam of the eaft, among the fpirits of thy friends, where they fit, in their ftormy halls, the chambers of the thunder! A cloud hovers over Cona. Its blue curling fides are high. The winds are beneath it, with their wings. Within it is the dwelling + of Fingal. There the hero fits in darkness. His airy fpear is in his hand. His fhield, half covered with clouds, is like the darkened moon; when one half ftill remains in the wave, and the other looks fickly on the field!

His friends fit around the king, on mist! They hear the fongs of Ullin: he ftrikes the

half

*Offian fpeaks. He calls Malvina a beam of light, and continues the metaphor throughout the paragraph.

+ The description of this ideal palace of Fingal is agreeable to the notions of those times, concerning the state of the deceafed, who were fuppofed to purfue, after death, the pleafures and employments of their former life. The fituation of the Celtic heroes, in their feparate ftate, if not entirely happy, is more agreeable, than the notions of the ancient Greeks concerning their departed heroes.