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BY ROBERT NICOLL . " The sonsrs that lulled me on the breast To sleep away the noon—Sing on ! sing on ! I love them beat ! " Scotland , of all countries , ought to be proud of her popular song—of those emanations of the poetical spirit , which
addressing themselves not to conventional or passing feelings , but to the fundamental and everlasting emotions of the human soul , thrill it by their woe or cheer it by their mirth , cover the cheek with tears or brighten the brow with smiles . All nations have their popular music and poetry ; words and sounds , which by some Btrange and hidden sympathies of the immaterial part of man , fill his heart with gladness by their joy , or plunge hiun
into grief by the power of their plaintive melancholy . But though all nations possess this popular vehicle of expressing the sentiments of the universal mind , no man who is acquainted with the national — the peculiarly national—music and poetry of Scotland , will feel induced to deny , that they etand preeminent above those of other countries for simple , moving pathos , exquisite and appropriate imagery , plaintive melancholy , and , under other circumstances and the dominion of
other feelings , for racy and natural humour . Fletcher of Saltoun , is reported to have said , " Give me the making of a nation ' s songs , and I will let who pleases make its laws . ' The patriot spoke in the fulness of his knowledge of the land for which he lived and died ; for assuredly ip no other country on the face of the earth , not even in Switzerland , is song so efficient an ally to a cause as in our own—in no other does it
• Soo the manifesto of the Presbyterian Association for a choice specimen of this ¦ peciea of moral logic . Dame Howley , it is contended , directed that her almawomen should all know Bowles ' s Catechism , for the purpose , not of ascertaining how soundl y they believed , but of showing how correctly they could read .
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The Songs of Scotland . 203
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she is not a " single" being , * but merged in the duplicity of her husband ' s civil ( or uncivil ) identity . She is sworn to love , honour , and obey till death . And if the first two become imposssible , what can be more reasonable than making- up the deficiency b y a double allowance of the last ? Who does not remember Mrs . Siddons ' s humble petition to her idle husband , that he would bequeath her a fraction of the earnings of her
own magnificent talent ? In this case , as in that of the negro , no doubt there is reaction and retribution . That little mends the matter . Nor should we have adverted to any of these topics now , but that we wish to warn the good people of England what perilous things principles are , and to show what strange thoughts sometimes come into the head amid the loud chorus sings of Justice and Freedom , Equality and Christianity . F .
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THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 203, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/11/
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