It is said that this address, the original of which was supplied to the Highland Society in the year 1801, was well known in the central Highlands early in the eighteenth century. The Rev. Mr Macdiarmid wrote it down from the dictation of an old man in Glenlyon about 1770. It is said that this old man learned it in his youth from people in the same glen before Macpherson was born. The “Address to the Setting Sun” is given at the beginning of Macpherson’s _Carricthura_. It consists of eleven lines, and has been a great favourite among the people. The following is a literal translation:— Leav’st the blue distance of the skies, Unsullied Sun, with tress of gold? Where west thy tent of slumber lies The portals of the night unfold. The cautious billows cower nigher Thy shining temples to behold; Awe-struck, their heads they lift up higher To view thee grand in thy repose! Pale from thy side they back retire! May in thy cave sleep o’er thee close, O, Sun! till thou the dawn inspire. The above lines were written down by Mr Macdiarmid at the same time as the “Address to the Sun.” In the two pieces we find abstract conceptions that we never come across in the old ballads. This gives real ground to the argument of recent writers that the poems are of modern date. Whether ancient or modern, they are poetry of a high order, superior to that of the Irish and Scottish ballads. The new theory seems to some inconsistent with the honour and veracity of more than one clergyman and gentleman of repute, who could have no personal interest in helping to palm on the public the alleged forgeries of Macpherson. There is another “Address to the Sun”—to the rising sun—in Dr Smith’s Old Lays, which appeared many years before the publication of Macpherson’s Gaelic. It is admirably translated by Mr Pattison, and I avail myself of his translation:— Son of the young morn! that glancest O’er the hills of the east with thy gold-yellow hair How gay on the wild thou advancest Where the streams laugh as onward they fare; And the trees yet bedewed by the shower, Elastic their light bright branches raise, Whilst the melodies sweet they embower Hail thee at once with their lays. But where is the dim light duskily gliding, On her eagle wings from thy face? Where now is darkness abiding? In what cave do bright stars end their race— When fast, on their faded steps bending, Like a hunter you rush through the sky, Up those lone lofty mountains ascending, While down yon far summits they fly?