Ye shadowy Beings, that have rights and claims In every cell of Fingal's mystic Grot, Where are ye? Driven or venturing to the spot, Our fathers glimpses caught of your thin Frames, And, by your mien and bearing, knew your names; 5 And they could hear _his_ ghostly song who trod Earth, till the flesh lay on him like a load, While he struck his desolate harp without hopes or aims. Vanished ye are, but subject to recal; Why keep _we_ else the instincts whose dread law 10 Ruled here of yore, till what men felt they saw, Not by black arts but magic natural! If eyes be still sworn vassals of belief, Yon light shapes forth a Bard, that shade a Chief. XXXI FLOWERS ON THE TOP OF THE PILLARS AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE CAVE Hope smiled when your nativity was cast, Children of Summer![907] Ye fresh Flowers that brave What Summer here escapes not, the fierce wave, And whole artillery of the western blast, Battering the Temple's front, its long-drawn nave 5 Smiting, as if each moment were their last. But ye, bright Flowers, on frieze and architrave Survive,[908] and once again the Pile stands fast; Calm as the Universe, from specular towers Of heaven contemplated by Spirits pure 10 With mute astonishment, it stands sustained Through every part in symmetry, to endure,[909] Unhurt, the assault of Time with all his hours, As the supreme Artificer ordained.[910] FOOTNOTES: [907] Upon the head of the columns which form the front of the cave, rests a body of decomposed basaltic matter, which was richly decorated with that large bright flower, the ox-eyed daisy. I had[911] noticed the same flower growing with profusion among the bold rocks on the western coast of the Isle of Man; making a brilliant contrast with their black and gloomy surfaces.--W. W. 1835. [908] They still survive, and flourish above the pillars.--ED. [909] 1840 and C. Suns and their systems, diverse yet sustained In symmetry, and fashioned to endure, 1835. [910] 1835. As the Supreme Geometer ordained. MS. [911] 1845. The author had 1835. XXXII IONA