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Untitled Article
makes not riches , nor titles , nor gauds , nor ^ vanities , but Meh « To such be it said : — " May the eagles flight ever be thine Onward and upward true to the line !'* " The Songs of Scotland ! " with these words I began , and with these I shall end . Happy the land which possesses such a lever in the work of good . Is it right and proper that men should be taught self-respect ; that they should be taught to honour the dignity of man , and to contemn all other dignities' ? Has not Burns written , " A man ' s a man for a' that ? " Is it
right that men should worship the affections ? Have not Scotland ' s songs hallowed them ? And this earth of ours which the finger of God made , is it not more beautiful since poetry shed its sunshine over it ? Will that land ever be without
freemen—without martyrs if the cause call for them—in the mouths of whose people 'fc Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled " hath passed into a household word—or will it ever be without goodness while " The Cotter ' s Saturday night" is graven on the universal heart ? Never ! and while it is remembered that He who wrote these was a ploughman— -one of the abused multitude—will nobleness of spirit ever leave our native land ? "Bear we not written on our hearts The name of Rohert Burns ?"
Bring the pulpit and the press , bring lordly influence and priestly power , bring every force that will and ability can muster , to bear on the liberty—the nohilily—of the people of Scotland , and her popular song is shield enough against all . Kill and oppress and keep in ignorance ; hut the popular songlies deep in the heart , a seed from which shall spring liberty . So it is in Poland ; " I fear not for my country , " said a Polish
exile , " for though its children be exiled to Russia s deserts , and though the Russian nurses them in ignorance , I know that the seed is sown . I saw them kneel on the last spot of Polish earth and / heard them sing- their countrys songs" Ebenezer Elliott , and Mary Howitt , and Barry Cornwall , why wait ye ? ye are strong of spirit and free of soul . Let your task be to give to England a body of national song . Hallow her homes and her people—her pleasant festivals and her village customs —sanctify her affections—her freedom—her worth . Let your words be plain and simple , fitted for the mouths of artisans and " mechanical people , and you will do a deed which angels
will rejoice to look on . The Authors of the " Corn Law Rhyme * , " of " The Ranter , " of " Tibbie Inglis , " and 44 English Songs " have the power—aye , and the will ( which would make the power were it wanting ) , to give to England what Scotland already possesses in her national songs .
Untitled Article
SOS The Songs cf Scotland ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/16/
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