ad a b' aillidh dreach
A chunnacas riamh le m' shuil.

Gu'm b' ioghnadh leam mar tharladh dhoibh
A'm fasach fad air chul,
Coimeas luchd an aghaidhean,
Gu'n tagha de cheann iuil,
Air beannachadh neo-fhiata dhomh
Gu'n d' fhiaraich mi, "Co sud?"
'S fhreagair iad gu cianail mi
A'm briathraibh mine ciuin.

"Iochd, a's Gradh, a's Fiughantas,
'Nar triuir gur h-e ar n-ainm,
Clann nan uaislean urramach,
A choisinn cliu 's gach ball,
'Nuair a phaigh an fheile cis d'an Eug
'Sa chaidh i fein air chall
'Na thiomnadh dh' fhag ar n-athair sinn
Aig maithibh Innse-Gall."

SGIATHANACH.

FINGAL.

IN the yellow sunset of ancient Celtic glory appear the band of warriors
known as the Ossianic heroes. Under the magnifying and beautifying
influence of that sunset they tower upon our sight with a stature and
illustriousness more than human. Of these heroes, the greatest and best
was _Fionn_ or Fingal. Unless our traditions are extensively falsified
he was a man in whom shone all those virtues which are the boast of our
race. The unflinching performance of duty, the high sense of honour, the
tenderness more than woman's, and the readiness to appreciate the
virtues of others were among his more conspicuous characteristics. Now
that Celtic anthropology is being so extensively discussed, is it not
remarkable that Fingal, who so truly personifies the character of that
race, is not adduced as the representative Celt? He was a Celt to the
very core, and Celtic character has been in no small degree moulded by
copying his example. He was, in truth, not the _ultimus_ but the _Primus
Gaelorum_.

Nevertheless, it must be confessed that to many English readers Fingal
is nothing but a name, and that even to most of them he looms dark and
dim through the mist of years. Unhappily, a nature so transcendently
humane and heroic as his is not the sort to win the admiration of the
vulgar. Nay, so far is its simple grandeur removed above the common
materialism of modern life that the most refined cannot, at first sight,
appreciate its exalted loveliness.

The fullest and, we believe, the truest account of him is to be found in
Ossian's poems. That the poetry so denominated was, in substance,
composed by Ossian we have no doubt. At any rate the descriptions of
Fingal therein contained are not only cons