than to celebrate that divine reason which presides over nature."

Among the Roman poets, Ovid addressed a hymn to Bacchus, Virgil one to Hercules, and Horace has given us several, which discover that grace and harmony of versification, of which he was confessedly so great a master. But the above ode of Cleanthes is entitled to a decided preference over them all, not only from the superior sublimity of thought, but from the inimitable grandeur of expression*.

Eulogies were not, however, long confined to the Deity, but descended soon to man. They began in truth, but have ended in adulation. They celebrated benefits, before they flattered power, and honoured crimes. The reason of this proceeding is obvious. In rude ages, man stood fierce, and independent. In the equality of rights, which then existed, to receive praise, was to merit it. The chief, or rather the sole, ground of distinction, being personal qualities, he who performed the most useful services, was sure to be the most admired and respected.

* It may not be amiss here to observe, that our reason for making no mention of the sacred hymns and songs addressed by the Hebrews to the Deity, arises from respect, and the persuasion, that it would be highly improper to pass any criticism upon performances which breathe so divine a spirit of eloquence.

The discovery of fire, the application of this element to the uses of life, the art of forging metals, and the rude design of a plough, were doubtless the first titles for the panegyrics of nations. The meanest professions were then the noblest. After these discoverers of materials adapted to the purposes of life had received their due praises, the next persons to whom, we may suppose, the palm of distinction and honor was assigned, were those who voluntarily encountered lions and tigers, and other destructive animals, to ensure the safety and preservation of their fellow creatures. The legislator may be conjectured to have been the last, in this infant state of society, who was exalted to a place among the benefactors of mankind*.

The existence, indeed, of eulogies, among the earliest ages of the world, can be readily traced by every writer, who has applied himself to the study of general history. The Chinese, Phoenicians, and Arabians, celebrated in songs the great exploits of their heroes. Greece could not be recognised as the country of Homer and Plato, when she adopted or created this usage.

The Gods of Greece and Rome, as well as of other nations, had been men, inventors of useful arts, victorious rulers, and wise legislators, who had been deified after their deaths.

See Cicero de Naturâ Deorum, Lib. i. Diodorus Siculus, Lib. iii. Cæsar de Bel. Gal. Lib. vi. 17.

The same custom was practised among the Romans, when the blood of a horse, the husk of a bean, the ashes of the bowels of a calf killed in the belly of its mother, and burnt on the altar of Vesta, were deemed sufficient to purify their nation*.

In short, the same institution prevailed for several centuries among the Celtic people. The Druids were the philosophers and priests of the nation; the Bards were the panegyrists of heroest. Their station was the centre of the army; and the warrior, who fell, covered with a hundred wounds, turned his dying eyes towards the poet, who was to raise him to a state of immor tality. These songs or eulogies constituted the chief glory of that nation. The memory of those songs passed to succeeding generations. They served as the prelude to battles; they animated the warrior; they consoled the aged. The hero, who could no longer wield the javelin, seated himself under an oak, and listened with delight to the bard, who rehearsed the glorious deeds of his youth; while his sons, who surrounded him, leaned upon their lances, and sighed to think how distant might be the period before they should equal his renown.

* See Ovid, Fasti. Lib. iv.

+ See Henry's History of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 141, 145, 153.

The enthusiasm of valor, which these panegyrics tended to call forth among the people, may be more easily conceived than described. Such, indeed, were the effects of those military songs, that we may almost be justified in comparing them to the Roman triumphs, which, by exhibiting symbols of the cities, rivers, and mountains, the general had visited in the course of his victorious career, exposed to the eyes of the citizens the magnitude of his conquests; and never failed to excite in them sentiments the most conducive to the permanent glory of their country. By means of these songs, Germany, Gaul, and England, maintained so long a struggle against the Roman power; and they imparted to the north of Scotland a sentiment of liberty and independence, which is not even yet entirely extinguished. Before Edward the First could subdue the Welsh, he was obliged to have recourse to the cruel expedient of massacring their bards. But, though he put them to the sword, he could not destroy those songs which perpetuated, in their mountains, a contempt of death, and an abhorrence of slavery.

The Germans, like the Scots and Britons, had their bards, who, in the field of battle, and the feast of victory, animated their auditors to imitate the illustrious exploits of their forefathers. Several of their songs

existed in the time of Charlemagne, who ordered them to be translated into verse, in the language of the ancient Romantz. These monuments were preserved, as long as this great prince lived; but they were swept away in the deluge of barbarism, which followed his death. An historian, however, who wrote in the commencement of the sixteenth century, pretends to quote those ancient songs which he is said to have discovered in some convent of Germany; but whoever has examined the general nature of the events recorded in his work, will not be inclined, perhaps, to give implicit belief to this assertion+.

If we ascend from Germany towards the north, among the Scandinavians, we shall find the same usage existing. The people, who reduced the mistress of the world, had a subject to celebrate, powerfully adapted to kindle enthusiasm and valour in their ferocious breasts. The Scaldi sung the glories of their heroes; and, it is said, that the Runic characters are still to be traced on the rocks of the north. The Danes, who, under the famous name of Normans, spread devastation

* See remarks upon the origin of that species of writing, in "The. reign of Charlemagne, considered chiefly with reference to religion, laws, literature, and manners."-Page 201, &c.

+ See the Chronicon of Albert Krantzius.