"Now, by this hallow'd Eve, I vow,*

"Soon as the Mafs be done,

"The next enfuing Holy-Day

"The Prieft fhall make ye one.

"And ye fhall live (fo Heav'n permit!)
"To caft one Gleam of Light
Athwart your Father's gath'ring Eve,
"Or ere he fink in Night;

Or ere beneath yon aged Elm
"He's number'd with the dead,

The chofen Spot where his own Hands
"Have made his latest Bed.

"But while fome Hours of Life are lent,

"By Gratitude and Pray'ı,

And Mem'ry of my Errors past,

"Thofe Errors I'll repair:

"And oft as I recount them o'er

"Thy steady Faith I'll praife, "And for my deareft Boy once more "The focial Hearth fhall blaze.

* Probably Christmas-Eve, as December is mentioned in the Opening of the Tale,

Age, ev'n as Youth, thou feeft, my Son,

"Is liable to fall,

And Self-reproof, and Penitence, "Alike befeem us all."

LET.

Mr. MG to W. SHENSTONE, Efq. with Fragments of Antient Poetry, printed at Edinburgh, in the Year 1769.

: Dear Sir,

Edinburgh, June 21, 1769.

IT gives me the greatest Pleasure, that I have

an Opportunity of conveying to a Perfon of your Tafte, the inclofed Fragments of antient Caledonian Poefy

Full many a Gem of pureft Ray ferene, "The dark unfathom❜d Caves of Ocean bear, "Full many a Rofe is born to blufh unfeen, "And waste its Sweetness on the defart Air."*

But Thanks to the Tafte and Care of the ingenious Tranflator, that we have not to lament the utter Lofs of thofe Pieces, which reflect fo much Luftre on the Memory of the original Bards. Here we fee Poets framed by the Hand of Nature; their Manners rude and

See GRAY's Elegy in a Country Church-Yard.

uncultivated, as the Wilds they inhabited; unacquainted with ARISTOTLE and HORACE, but pouring the (I had almost said) involuntary Effufions of Minds filled with true poetic Fire, deeply interested in the Themes they fung, devoid of all Rules, they attach and warm the Heart, by an amazing though secret Power, the conftant Effect of copying Nature, but copying her juftly, to which the languid Efforts of Art bear fcarce fo interesting a Proportion, as the Shadow to the Substance.

From the general Structure of the Poetry, from the Names of the Perfons celebrated in it, and the Hints of the Cofiume scattered here and there, it would appear, that these Poems were compofed about the Time that the antient Bards of Iceland, and the other northern Countries, made fo great a Figure in Poetry; or, perhaps, their Date may reach back beyond the Time of Christianity being preached in our Iflands; hence it will follow, that our Ancestors were rifing by furprising Efforts to catch the fairest Flowers of Parnaffus, while the polite Regions of Europe refounded

re

founded with polemic Theology and monkish Nonfenfe this becomes the more probable,

when we reflect, that scarce any Trace of Christianity is to be found in these Pieces, and no Trace of the Names that prevailed after the ninth Century, instead of which, the Names appear entirely Pagan; and numberless Hints are taken from the predatory Life our Ancestors (particularly thofe of the Islands and north-west Coafts of Scotland) led before, and at the first preaching of the Gofpel among them. A critical Examination of the original Language would help to throw fome Light on this Conjecture, as well as the Publication of Pieces of greater Length, which may follow these first Specimens. It is not, however, to be doubted, that the many Fragments still preferved amongst our Highlanders of their antient Poetry, may be of great Ufe in fettling the History, and ascertaining the Meaning of feveral Antiquities difperfed over the mountainous Parts of Scotland, while the Man of Taste must be agreeably furprised to find a Beauty and Foree of Diction, a Warmth of Fancy, a chaste and truly noble Simplicy united, where hitherto no Perfon has ever looked for it.