On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    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 ,

• Citation
  • 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/