tion beyond the singing, has given extraordinary prominence to this act. The want of a Scottish hymnology it is not difficult to explain. The demand for sacred lyrics has been abundantly satisfied by metrical translations of the Psalms. The reason of this may not be readily discovered, but the fact is certain, and the Psalms have thus come to be intricately interwoven with the religious sentiments of the Scottish people. The strength of this attachment it is impossible for an alien to realize. It is observable, not so much in the fanatical horror with which many congregations shrink from using in their service hymns "of merely human composition," as in the warmth of affection with which the old Psalter is spoken of even by those whose culture might be supposed to be offended by its rude versification. This attachment to the Psalms will probably be traced to peculiarities in the religious character of the Scotch, as developed by the scenery of their country, by their history, and by the Reformation. But whatever may have been the cause of this attachment, few will fail to ascribe to it the effect of imparting tu Scottish piety the prominently Old Testament type by which it has been generally marked. § 4.-The Facobite Struggle. The omission of any reference to the lyrical literature of this struggle would be liable to misapprehension, and the slight notice which it receives here may be a dis 1 See A. Cunningham's "Scottish Songs,” vol. i. pp. 104, 105, which expresses only what anyone who has mixed in the educated society of Scotland may have heard. appointment to some; but the object of this essay must form the justification of such treatment. The extent of this literature is indeed extraordinary-perhaps unequalled by the polemical songs of any other contest in the history of the world. Hogg, speaking of the first volume of his "Jacobite Relics," after observing that he confines himself in that volume to the songs previous to the battle of Sheriffmuir (13th November, 1715), adds: "Indeed there is no scarcity of them during that era. In the reign of Queen Anne the hopes of the Jacobites were at the full, and they seem to have adopted the sentiment lately expressed by a modern lawyer, ‘Suffer us to make the songs of our country, and do you make its laws.' Every Muse that could string a rhyme must certainly have then been put in requisition; for of the songs which I have received, that have apparently been written about that time, I have not thought proper to admit above one-fifth, and yet I am sure the peruser will think there is enough of them in all conscience."1 It is not, however, in number alone that these lyrics are surprising. After throwing aside a considerable amount of dreary rubbish, unreadable as controversial pamphlets after the passions of a controversy have died away, there are a large number of Jacobite songs whose literary excellence is likely to give them a place, for a long time to come, in the lyrical poetry of Scotland. And this excellence is of a very varied character, fitted to gratify the lover of song in the various moods in which poetical gratification is desired. I know of no contest which has produced such a number of songs, equal 1 "Jacobite Relics," vol. i. Introd. pp. xi., xii. to those of the Jacobites in defiant resolution, in reckless satire, in subduing pathos, and in exuberant mirth. With all this literature of song on their side, the wonder naturally arises that the Stuarts should have been so perpetually unsuccessful, that men began to talk mysteriously of their evil star, and the devout to see in their fate an answer from heaven to the cry of the people whom they had oppressed. It is for the historian to investigate the causes of this defeat; but it is not wholly beyond the province of this essay to observe, that the Whigs were the men of work, the Jacobites the men of sentiment, in their times. If the sterner nature and more practical activity of the former gave them little opportunity for indulging the enthusiasm which finds its natural outlet in song, the sentimentalism of the latter took from them that practical force which is absolutely essential to success. It is not surprising, therefore, that there should have been few songs, and these few of small poetical merit, on the side of the Whigs, while the force of their enemies, which ought to have been directed to political and military tactics, overflowed wastefully in lyrical effusions. The poetical excellence of the Jacobite songs claims for them a place in this inquiry, as contributing, along with other popular Scottish poems, to the cultivation of that poetical taste which is so widely diffused among the people of Scotland; but beyond this effect, which is merely common to them with all other good Scotch songs, their influence on the national character is quite inappreciable. In fact, even with reference to their power in preserving the traditional history of the struggle out of which they took their origin, it must be admitted that louder in the ear of the Scottish people than Wae's me for Prince Charlie is the wail over the martyrs of the Covenant; and tales of the heroism these displayed amid their sufferings are cherished in the memory and told with enthusiasm, when the name of the Chevalier is never mentioned, except in singing the Jacobite songs for the enjoyment of their poetry and music. CHAP GENERAL INFLUENCE OF THE BALLADS AND SONGS. "O Caledonia, stern and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child!" The Lay of the Last Minstrel. "Take up Burns. How is he great, except through the circumstance that the whole songs of his predecessors lived in the mouth of the people— that they were, so to speak, sung at his cradle; that, as a boy, he grew up amongst them, and the high excellence of these models so pervaded him, that he had therein a living basis on which he could proceed further?"GOETHE, in ECKERMANN'S Conversations. THE previous chapters have endeavoured to trace the influence on the Scottish character which has been exerted by different classes of ballads and songs; but it is still necessary to point out the influence which the ballads and songs in general have exerted, without reference to the particular classes into which they may be divided. It is on this subject, therefore, that I propose to make some observations in the present chapter. There need be no hesitation in saying that the general influence of the Scottish songs and ballads has been to diffuse among the people of Scotland a poetical taste and even a considerable poetical faculty. Of course, the existence of such an amount of excellent popular poetry as these songs and ballads compose, is itself, in the first instance, proof of a widely diffused |