-I caught the moral, and cried, "Hail,

Spirit! let us onward sail

Envying, fearing, hating none,

Guardian Spirit, steer me on!"

REULLURA.*

STAR of the morn and eve,

Reullura shone like thee,

And well for her might Aodh grieve,

The dark-attired Culdee.+

* Reullura, in Gaelic, signifies "beautiful star."

+ The Culdees were the primitive clergy of Scotland, and apparently her only clergy from the sixth to the eleventh century. They were of Irish origin, and their monastery on the island of Iona or Ikolmill was the seminary of Christianity in North Britain. Presbyterian writers have wished to prove them to have been a sort of Presbyters, strangers to the Roman Church and Episcopacy. It seems to be established that

Peace to their shades! the pure Culdees

Were Albyn's earliest priests of God,
Ere yet an island of her seas

By foot of Saxon monk was trode,

Long ere her churchmen by bigotry
Were barr'd from holy wedlock's tie.

'Twas then that Aodh, famed afar,

In Iona preach'd the word with power,

And Reullura, beauty's star,

Was the partner of his bower.

they were not enemies to Episcopacy;-but that they were not slavishly subjected to Rome like the clergy of later periods, appears by their resisting the Papal ordonnances respecting the celibacy of religious men, on which account they were ultimately displaced by the Scottish sovereigns to make way for more Popish canons.

But, Aodh, the roof lies low,

And the thistle-down waves bleaching,

And the bat flits to and fro

Where the Gael once heard thy preaching;

And fall'n is each column'd isle

Where the chiefs and the people knelt.

'Twas near that temple's goodly pile

That honour'd of men they dwelt.

For Aodh was wise in the sacred law,

And bright Reullura's eyes oft saw

The veil of fate uplifted.

Alas, with what visions of awe

Her soul in that hour was gifted—

When pale in the temple and faint,

With Aodh she stood alone

By the statue of an aged Saint!

Fair sculptured was the stone, It bore a crucifix;

Fame said it once had graced

A Christian temple, which the Picts
In the Britons' land laid waste:

The Pictish men, by St. Columb taught,
Had hither the holy relic brought.

Reullura eyed the statue's face,

And cried, " It is, he shall come,

“Even he in this very place,

"To avenge my martyrdom.

"For, woe to the Gael people!

"Ulvfagre is on the main,