These Lays bear internal evidence that they are not the growth of an ignorant and barbarous age. They show that the people of Ireland had made no inconsiderable progress in civilization and refinement, and in the useful and ornamental arts-as in vocal and instrumental music-in the fabrication of arms, in the chasing of gems, in works of gold and silver, and in blazonry. The beautiful brooches, rings, torques, golden crescents, and other precious ornaments, which, with various implements of bronze, still continue to be found in the earth, and many of which may be seen in the cabinets of the curious, are so exquisitely wrought and finished as to excite the emulation of modern artificers. The nobles and warriors were in manner courteous, frank, hospitable, " jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel." Their bearing to persecuted damsels, with their promptitude and bravery in espousing the cause and avenging the wrongs of the weak and oppressed, was equalled only by that of the knights of romance. They expressed a generous praise of the valour of their enemies, and lamented their untimely fate when they fell in battle. Of female beauty they felt the indomitable power, and evinced an enthusiastic admiration.

As reliques of the minstrelsy which once flourished in Ireland, these Lays have a claim to as much attention as any other objects of antiquity-as much, at least, as is paid to broken columns, illegible inscriptions, and cenotaphs abroad-or dilapidated round-towers, fractured urns, trilithons, and ogham epitaphs at home.

laoid Magnuir wor

THE LAY OF MAGNUS THE GREAT.

ARGUMENT.-The Poem opens with an address of Ossian blaming Patrick's want of taste in not listening to his song. Patrick replies that he prefers his psalms to the tales of the Bard, and this provokes Ossian to a rude and angry comparison. Patrick mollifies him by a complimentary answer, and requests him to repeat one of his Fenian tales. Ossian then proceeds to state, that as the Fenians were pursuing the chase, they saw a fleet of many ships approaching the shore. Finn asks who of his warriors would go and inquire whence they came, and their object in coming to Erin. Bald Conan sarcastically replies, that Fergus, Finn's favourite son, should be despatched to make the inquiry. Fergus indignantly rebukes Conan for his folly-but cheerfully undertakes the task. In answer to his call whence the invaders came, he is told that they came from Lochlin, and that king Magnus is their chief. Fergus says, that if they come in friendship they will be kindly received. Magnus exclaims that they come to take from Finn his dog and his wife; and threatens to take them by force. Fergus hurls back a stern defiance, and, returning to Finn, repeats what had occurred. Finn declares that he will never comply with such insolent demands. Each and all of the chiefs express their promptitude to meet the king of Lochlin in single combat, but Finn claims that honour for himself. The armies prepare for battle. After a sanguinary conflict, Magnus is overcome by Finn, and bound with thongs. Conan desires to cut off his headfor which he is sternly reprimanded. Finn generously spares the king of Lochlin, and gives him permission either to return to his own country or to remain and live in honour with him and the Fenians. Magnus, affected by such generosity, vows never more to wage war with Erin, and laments that he ever left his native dominions to pursue an enterprise that has proved so disastrous. The Poem ends with some moral reflections of Ossian, who perseveres in asserting the preference of his war-songs to the melancholy chant of Patrick's psalms.

B

I.

OSSIAN.-Psalm-singing Clerk! to taste and sense
But small, in sooth, is thy pretence,
So listless is thy soul to hear
My little tale of the Fenians dear,
Whose praise our Bards resound;
Ne'er seen by thee, but known to fame,
Of harp and song the glorious theme,
And o'er the world renowned.

PATRICK.-Good son of Finn let truth be told,
Though sweet thy tales of times of old,

More sweet is the chant of hymns to me

Than all thy tales and thy minstrelsy.

OSSIAN.-Thy drawling chant, priest, shouldst thou dare With tale of Fenian chiefs compare

Chiefs of Gadelian line

My past endurance should I rue,
And grieve, that in my vengeance due,

I made that head no longer thine.

PATRICK. O most renowned the bards among,
Thou sweetest of the sons of Song,

Hailed as the generous good and brave,

Thy kind forgiveness let me crave.
Sweet is thy voice, and sweet the tale
Of the gallant sons of Innisfail,
That fondly I would hear—
O wake thy minstrelsy sublime,
And, with the deeds of olden time,
Now charm th' enraptured ear.

II.

OSSIAN. Then list-As on one ruddy morn
We pastime took with hound and horn,
And as to rouse the game we hied,
Far o'er the foam-crest waves we spied

A numerous fleet with snow-white sails,
Full-bosomed by the Northern gales,
As bounding o'er the deep they flew,
And shoreward near and nearer drew.
Swift at the signal trumpet's sound,
The gallant Fenians gathering round,
From hill and glen-from east and west,
In seven battalions onward prest,
With spear and dart prepared to meet
(Should Morna's son command,)
The warriors of th' advancing fleet,
Upon the shelving strand.

III.

"What chief," said Finn, "for glorious meed Of praise, will to their landing speed,

To ask the rovers whence they roam

Their purpose what-and where their home?"
Then Morni's son, bald Conan, cries,

Conan the froward and unwise,

"Who but some potent lord or king,
Would cross the billowy main,

Or hither yon proud navy bring,
If not o'er thee to reign?—

But as thy herald fleet employ

That glib-tongued youth-that pretty boy

Well skilled to wheedle, coax,` decoy—

Thy Fergus to such office bred

He surely by his wonted art,

In peace may prompt them to depart."

FERGUS." My malediction on thy head!
Bald wretch, of spite and malice born!
To mischief ever prone;

"Morna, or Muirn Munchaomh, mother of Finn, and daughter of Thady, the son of Nuagatt, an eminent Druid, retained in the family of Cathaoir More. Almhuin, in the province of Leinster, was the native country and inheritance of Thady, upon which account Finn obtained possession of Almhuin, in right of his mother."-Keating, p. 294.

Thy envious jeers and jibes I scorn:
And now I proudly own

That here I stand prepared to go
And parley free with friend or foe."

IV.

Then, clad in arms, he sought the bay
Where moored a thousand gallies lay,
And with a voice that through the crowd
Of hollow war-ships echoed loud,
He on them boldly cried,

To tell the country whence they came,
Their purpose what, their chief, their name ;-
And thus a voice replied:-

--

"Great Magnus is the chief we own, The king who sits on Lochlin's throne, Mac-Mehee of the crimson shields,

With vengeance in his path; Strong is the sceptre that he wields, And terrible his wrath."

FERGUS.-Why hither comes your haughty host,
Led by the potent chief you boast,
King of your speckled fleet?

If you have sought green Erin's shore,
As friends, our friendship to implore-
'Tis well-we proffer welcome meet
To Lochlin's king renowned.

"We come," cried Magnus, fierce for strife,
"To take from Finn his beauteous wife,

*This demand of the Northern Invaders will remind the reader of the Persians' demand of earth and water from the Greeks as proofs of their submission, and an acknowledgment of the superiority of the Persian monarch.

In Macpherson's Fingal (Book II., p. 197, Dublin edition), Swaran, King of Lochlin, amplifies the reply thus-"Take Swaran's peace, the peace he gives to kings when nations bow to his sword. Leave Erin's streamy plains to us, and give thy spouse and dog. Thy spouse high-bosomed heaving fair! Thy dog that overtakes the wind! Give these to prove the weakness of thine arm; live then beneath our power."