6G 



Song of Solomon, the Book of Isaiah, and the Psalms, have furnished 

 him with many materials. But he does not confine himself to these. 

 He levies contributions unsparingly from every part of the sacred 

 volume, in which he can find any thing to suit his purpose. 



" Who is this," asks Solomon, " that cometh out of the wilderness 

 like pillars of smoke? "Is that Cuthullin," resounds Macpherson, "or 

 a pillar of smoke on the heath ?" Carthon is termed " a pillar of 

 fire." Solomon invokes the north and the south winds : " awake, O 

 north wind, and come thou south." And Macpherson has a similar 

 invocation, " cease a little while, O wind ! stream, be thou silent 

 awhile!" and again, "arise, winds of autumn, arise!" 



The following passages from Canticles, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, are 

 frequently imitated. " Who is she that looketh forth as the morn- 

 ing, fair as the moon, clear as the sun. — Song of Sol. vi. 10. His 

 locks are bushy, (or curled,) v. II., as the appearance of the bow that 

 is in the cloud in the day of rain. — Ez. i. 28. Who is this that cometh 

 from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? This that is glorious 

 in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength ? — Is. Ixiii. 1. 



" Who," asks Macpherson, " comes from the hill like a steed in his strength ?— Who 

 comes like a stag of the desert, with all his herd behind him ? — Who comes towards my son 

 with the murmur of a song ? — Who cometh from the hill like a cloud, tinged with the beam 

 of the west?— Who," said the soft- voiced Carril, "who come like bounding roes? — Who 

 comes from Lubar's vale ? — From the skirts of the morning mist ? — Was he white as the 

 snow of Ardven — blooming as the bow of the shower ? — Was his hair like the mist of the 

 hill, soft and curling in the day of the sun ? — Who is that before them like the terrible course 

 of a stream ? — Who on his staff, is this ? — Who comes from the land of strangers, with his 

 thousands around him ? * « * * Who is it but Comhal's son ? 



Though Macpherson sometimes makes a change in the imagery 

 of the sacred writers, who does not see at a glance, that his descrip^ 

 tions, as they were suggested, are also compounded of phrases sup- 



