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.