comparison dilated into the following? "stood Erin's few sad sons, 

 like a grove through which the flame had rushed, hurried on by the 

 winds of the stormy night ; distant, withered, dark, they stand with 

 not a leaf to shake in the gale ;" and again, " Lochlin stands like a half 

 consumed grove of oaks, when we see the sky through its branches, 

 and the meteor passing behind." We think we have seen the same 

 grove of oaks before in a different scene, and though without the 

 accompaniment of the sky, and the omnipresent Ossianic meteor, 

 not less magnificent, nor less powerfully depicted ; and we cannot 

 resist the conviction, that we should never have seen it in Ossian, 

 had it not previously appeared in Milton and Virgil. 



Faithful how they stood. 



Their glory withered, as when heaven's fire 



Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines ; 



With singed top their stately, growth, though bare, 



Stands on the blasted heath. 



Par. Lost, i. 611. 



Virgil thus compares the Cyclops to a grove : 



^tnaeos fratres, cceIo capita alta ferentes. 

 Concilium horrendum : quales cum vertice celso 

 Aeriae quercus, aut coniferas cyparissi 

 Constiterant, sylva alta Jovis, lucusve Dianae. 



The monstrous race we spy 



A host of giants towering in the sky. 



So on some mountain towers the lofty grove 



Of beauteous Dian, or imperial Jove ; 



Th' aerial pines in pointed spires from far. 



^N. iii. 678. 



Or spreading oaks majestic nod in air.* 



Pitt. 



* Dr^deD, ia bis translation of these verses, becomes Ossianic in this line : , 

 " The misty cloads about their foreheads flf." 



