New-York daily tribune., 1844-01-25

is as unincumbered as the course of the stars they
gaze at.
The wrathfu kings, on cairns apart,
Look forward from behind their shields
And mark the wandering stars,
That brilliant westward E.oye'
It does not cost much for these heroes to live.
They want not much furniture. They are such
forms Of men only as can be seen afar through
the mist. and have no costume nor dialect, but
for language there is the tongue itself, and for
costume there are always the skins of beasts and
the bark of trees to be had. They live out their
years by the vigor of their constitutions. They
survive storms and the spears of their foes, and
perform few heroic deeds, and then,
Mounds will answer questions of them,
Forrnany future years"
Blind and infirm, they spend the remnant Of their
days listening to the lays Of the bards and feeling
the weapons which laid their enemies low, and
when at length they die, by a convulsion of ma
ture, the bard allows us short misty glance into
had been. When Mac Rome was slain,
HIS soul departed to his warlike siles,
To follow misty forms OF bears,
Ia ternp-stuous Islands bleak
The hcro's earn is erected, and the bard sings
brief significant strain, which will suffice for
cpitaph and biography
6. lne veal, viii find his bow IN III, dwelling,
The feeble Will attempt 20 bend 1t
Compared with this simple, fbrous life, our
civilized history appears the chronicle OF debility,
OF fashion, and the arts OF luxury But the civl-
lzed man misses no real refinementin the poetry
of the rudest era. It reminds him that clyilizi-
ton does but dress men. il makes Shoes but it
does not tonghcn the soles of the feet. 1t makes
cloth of finer texture, but does not touch the
skin. Inside ibc civilized man stands the savage
sun In the place of honor. We are those blue
eyed, yellow.h haired Saxons, those slender, dark
haired Normans
The profession Of the bard attached more re-
spect in those days from the Importance attached
to fame. 1t was his province TO record the deeds
of heroes When OSsian hears the traditions Of
inferior bards, he exclaims,
+" straightway seize the nniatile tales
And send ;iein down in faithful verse;
His philosophy Of life is expressed in the opening
of the third Duan OF Ca-Lodin.
Whence have sprung the things that are!
nlH1N. nnl whittier i rol The passing years
II dense irrenetrs able g loom,
s"s'1Ss the eentfSSns elrh9 "ss a0ne
The past appears bul dim
As objects by the moons faint beams,
Reflected from dlstantlake.
see, indeed the thunder-boltS Of war.
But there the unmlghty joyless dwell,
All those who send not down their deeds
10 far, succeeding times
L
Strangers come 10 build tower.
And throw their ashes overland
Some ed swords appear IN dust
One, bending forward, says
The belonged TO heroes gone
We never heard their praise III song.
The grandeur of the SMILES is another feature
which characterzes great poetry. Osslan seems
to speak gigantic and universal language. The
images and pictures occupy even much space Ia
the landscape as if they could be seen only from
the sides of mountains, and PLAINS with u WIDE
horizon or across arms of the sea. The ma
chnery is so massive that 1t cannot be less than
natural. Oivana says to the spirit OF her father,
' Grey haired Torkil Of Torne, seen IN the
skies,
Thou oldest away hike reteding ships
So when the hosts of Finga! and Starne approach
to battle,
With murmurs loud like rivers far,
The OF Tome hlther moved
And when compelled to retire,
Dragging his spear behind,
Cudum sank in the dIstaut wood,
Like fire upblazing ere il dies "
Nor did Fingal want a proper audience when ne
spoke;
a thousand orators inclined
To hea- the lay Of Finga
The threats too would have deferred man Ven
ceance and terror were real. Trenmore threatens
the Young warrior, whom he meets on loreigh
strand,
Thy mother shall find thee pale on the shore
While leSssniug on the waves she spies
,Th- sails OF him who slew her SON
If Ossian's heroes weep, 1t is from excess OF
strength. and not from weakness, sacrhce
or Ebation of fertile natures like the persplraton
of stone in summers heat. We hardly know
that tears have been shed, and 1t seems as II
weeping were proper only for babes and heroes:
Their iov and their sorrow are made OF one stun
like ram and snow, the rainbow and the mist;
When Fillan was worsted in fight, and ashamed
in the presence of Fingal,
He strobe away forthwith,
And bent in grief above stream,
Hi, checks bedewe with tears
From time u time the ihistiss gray
He Topped with his inverted lance
Crodar. blind and old, receives Osslan, son ol
Fingal, who comes to aid him IN war.
Ny eyes haye failed, says he. Ctoda5ls oiluc'
l. thy sire myth like that OF thy fathers
Stretch Ossiar, thine arm TO the hoary-halFea
gave my 70 the king
The aged hero ssiZsd my hand
He hrsved heasy sigh;
! ears fawe inceSSlnt down bis Cheek
Strong at hou. son OF the mighty
Though not so dreadful as Noryeu-s princs
Let my least be spread IN the hall,
~ w. & eel = ., ,,C-tl.t srralSl