A few specimen extracts from “The Beauties” may here be quoted to illustrate their quality. Of the three earlier poems “The Aged Bard’s Wish” is the best known, and of it our author gives both the text and a literal translation. It was Mrs. Grant of Laggan who first brought it under public notice, and then it was considered ancient because there is no flavour of Christianity in its composition. On the contrary, the bard desires entrance at death into the hall where dwell Ossian and Daol, and expresses the wish that there be laid by his side at the last a harp, a shell full of liquor, and his ancestor’s shield. In other respects both the language and sentiment are modern. O càiraibh mi ri taobh nan allt A shiubhlas mall le ceumaibh ciuin Fo sgâil a bharraich leag mo cheann ’S bi thùs’ a ghrian ro-chàirdeil rium. O place me by the purling brook, That wimples gently down the lea, Under the old tree’s branchy shade, And thou, bright sun, be kind to me! Where I may hear the waterfall, And the hum of its falling wave, And give me the harp and the shell and the shield Of my sires in the strife of the brave. Of Macintyre’s “Ben Dorain,” which is also included, Professor Blackie says, “I shall be surprised to learn that there exists in any language, ancient or modern, a more original poem of the genus which we may call venatorial. What Landseer, in a sister art, has done for animals in general, that Macintyre, in this singular work, has done for the deer and the roe.” And then Blackie himself gives a characteristic rendering into English of the poem, very free, but catching the spirit of its Gaelic author. For example:—