Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/139

 blows and the flowing of blood. But Ossian has already described the result of the battle when he has painted the character of the heroes.

See an example in Callon and Colvala:

or in Ca-Lodin:

We engaged, and the enemy won;

or in Croma:

No poet has done such justice to the island of foggy fame.

What a contrast between the stern and desolate poetry of Ossian and that of Chaucer and the early English bards! The bard indeed seems to have lost much of his dignity and the sacredness of his profession. He [91]