erity, the deeds and sentiments of their forefathers. Verse is
naturally connected with music; and, among a rude people, the union
is seldom broken. By this natural alliance, the lays, "steeped in
the stream of harmony," are more easily retained by the reciter, and
produce upon his audience a more impressive effect. Hence, there
has hardly been found to exist a nation so brutishly rude, as not to
listen with enthusiasm to the songs of their bards, recounting
the exploits of their forefathers, recording their laws and moral
precepts, or hymning the praises of their deities. But, where the
feelings are frequently stretched to the highest pitch, by the
vicissitudes of a life of danger and military adventure, this
predisposition of a savage people, to admire their own rude poetry and
music, is heightened, and its tone becomes peculiarly determined. It
is not the peaceful Hindu at his loom, it is not the timid Esquimaux
in his canoe, whom we must expect to glow at the war song of Tyrtaeus.
The music and the poetry of each country must keep pace with their
usual tone of mind, as well as with the state of society.

The morality of their compositions is determined by the same
circumstances. Those themes are necessarily chosen by the bard, which
regard the favourite exploits of the hearers; and he celebrates only
those virtues, which from infancy he has been taught to admire. Hence,
as remarked by Lesley, the music and songs of the borders were of
a military nature, and celebrated the valour and success of their
predatory expeditions. Razing, like Shakespeare's pirate, the eighth
commandment from the decalogue, the minstrels praised their chieftains
for the very exploits, against which the laws of the country denounced
a capital doom.--An outlawed freebooter was to them a more interesting
person, than the King of Scotland exerting his power to punish his
depredations; and, when the characters are contrasted, the latter is
always represented as a ruthless and sanguinary tyrant.--Spenser's
description of the bards of Ireland applies in some degree, to our
ancient border poets. "There is, among the Irish, a certain kinde
of people, called bardes, which are to them instead of poets; whose
profession is to set forth the praises or dispraises of men, in their
poems or rhymes; the which are had in such high regard or esteem
amongst them, that none dare displease them, for fear of running into
reproach through their offence, and to be m