166 
INNOCENCE. 
Sweet flower ! for by that name at last, 
When all my reveries are past, 
I call thee, and to that cleave fast, 
Sweet silent creature ! 
That breath’st with me in sun and air, 
Do then, as thou art wont, repair 
My heart with gladness, and a share 
Of thy meek nature ! 
“Malvina, leaning o’er Eingal’s tomb, 
mourns for the valiant Oscar, and his son 
who died before he had seen the light. 
“ The virgins of Morven, to calm her grief, 
walk often around her, celebrating, by their 
songs, the death of the brave and the new¬ 
born. 
“ ‘ The hero is fallen,’ say they; ‘ he is 
fallen! and the sound of his arms echoes over 
the plain ; disease, which takes away courage ; 
age, which dishonours heroes, can no longer 
touch him; he is fallen! and the sound of 
his arms echoes over the plain ! 
“ ‘ Received into the heavenly palace in¬ 
habited by his ancestors, he drinks with them 
the cup of immortality. Oh ! daughter of 
Oscar, dry thy tears of grief; the hero is 
fallen! he is fallen ! and the sound of his 
arms echoes over the plain.’ 
“ Then, in a softer voice, they said again 
to her, ‘ The child who has not seen the light 
has not known the bitterness of life; its young 
soul, borne on glittering wings, arrives with 
