145 



,.,. "The description," he says, " given of Selma after its fall, in the 

 third and fourth lines of this passage, corresponds exactly to the pre- 

 sent appearance of the ruins of the place." The just inference from 

 which observation is, that the description was recently made. Had it 

 been made on the place, and at the time when Selma was burned, 

 the ruins would not have been green mounds, nor the stones half 

 sunk in their own meadows. 



Other quotations are made to shew that Selma, or Taura, or 

 Temorah, for Taura, he supposes, is but another name for Selma, 

 was near the shore on an eminence, and commanded a prospect of 

 the sea: just such a situation, we presume, as Horace would have 

 selected for his country residence : 



" lUic vivere vellem 

 Oblitus meorum, oblivescendus et illis ; 

 Neptunum procul e terra spectare furentem." 



, :.0r where Lucretius might have stood, while he sang: 



" Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis, &c." , f 



; ami 



Such are the very discriminating circumstances by which we are 

 to discover the royal habitation of the king of Morven ! Selma is a 

 word of liquid cadence, and shews the musical ear of its inventor. It 

 seems to have been suggested by the Irish Almhuin, the real name of 

 Fin Mac-Cumhal's abode, if it be not rather an anagram of the 

 Hebrew Saletn. Tarah is a well-known and oft-repeated name in 

 Irish history and poetry. The corruption of its orthography to Taura, 

 is too impotent a device to transfer its site to the wilds of Caledonia. 

 To achieve this would require the aid of a more powerful wizard 



VOL. XVI. U 



