but they seem unequal to account for the effect. In England, similar distractions and oppression took place, yet poetry flourished there in a remarkable degree. During this period, Cowley, and Waller, and Dryden sung, and Milton raised his strain of unparalleled grandeur. To the causes already mentioned, another must be added, in accounting for the torpor of Scottish literature-the want of a proper vehicle for men of genius to employ. The civil wars had frightened away the Latin muses, and no standard had been established of the Scottish tongue, which was deviating still farther from the pure English idiom.

The revival of literature in Scotland, may be dated from the establishment of the union, or ra ther from the extinction of the rebellion in 1715. The nations being finally incorporated, it was clearly seen that their tongues must in the end incorporate also; or rather indeed that the Scottish language must degenerate into a provincial idiom, to be avoided by those who would aim at distinction in letters, or rise to eminence in the united legislature.

Soon after this, a band of men of genius appeared, who studied the English classics, and imitated their beauties in the same manner as they studied the classics of Greece and Roine. They had admirable models of composition lately presented to them by the writers of the reign of Queen Anne; particularly in the periodical pa pers published by Steele, Addison, and their asso eiated friends, which circulated widely through Scotland, and diffused every where a taste for pu rity of style and sentiment, and for critical disqui sition. At length the Scottish writers succeeded in English composition, and an union was formed of the literary talents, as well as of the legislatures of the two nations. On this occasion the poets took the lead. While Henry Home, Dr. Wallace, and their learned associates, were only laying in

Lord Kaims.

their intellectual stores, and studying to clear themselves of their Scottish idioms, Thomson, Mallet, and Hamilton of Bangour, had made their appearance before the public, and been enrolled on the list of English poets. The writers in prose followed-a numerous and powerful band, and poured their ample stores into the general stream of British literature. Scotland possessed her four universities before the accession of James to the English throne. Immediately before the union, she acquired her parochial schools. These esta blishments combining happily together, made the elements of knowledge of easy acquisition, and presented a direct path, by which the ardent student might be carried along into the recesses of science or learning. As civil broils ceased, and faction and prejudice gradually died away, a wider field was opened to literary ambition, and the influence of the Scottish institutions for instruction, on the productions of the press, became more and more apparent.

It seems indeed probable that the establishment of the parochial schools produced effects on the rural muse of Scotland also, which have not hitherto been suspected, and which, though less splendid in their nature, are not however to be regarded as trivial, whether we consider the happiness or the morals of the people.

There is some reason to believe that the original inhabitants of the British isles possessed a peculiar and an interesting species of music, which being banished from the plains by the successive invasions of the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, was preserved with the native race, in the wilds of Ire land, and in the mountains of Scotland and Wales. The Irish, the Scottish, and the Welch music dif fer indeed from each other, but the difference may be considered as in dialect only, and probably produced by the influence of time, like the different dialects of their common language. If this conjecture be true, the Scottish music must be more immediately of a Highland origin, and the Low

land tunes, though now of a character somewhat. distinet, must have descended from the mountains in remote ages. Whatever credit may be given to conjectures evidently involved in great uncertainty, there can be no doubt that the Scot tish peasantry have been long in possession of a number of songs and ballads composed in their native dialect, and sung to their native music. The subjects of these compositions were such as most interested the simple inhabitants, and, in the succession of time, varied probably as the condition of society varied. During the separation and the hostility of the two nations, these songs and ballads, as far as our imperfect documents enable us to judge, were chiefly warlike; such as the Huntis of Cheviot, and the Battle of Harlaw. After the union of the two crowns, when a certain degree of peace and of tranquillity took place, the rural muse of Scotland breathed in softer accents. "In the want of real evidence respecting the history of our songs," says Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, recourse may be had to conjecture. One would be disposed to think that the most beautiful of the Scottish tunes were clothed with new words after the union of the crowns. The inhabitants of the borders, who had formerly been warriors from choice, and husbandmen from necessity, either quitted the country, or were transformed into real shepherds, easy in their circumstances, and satisfied with their lot. Some sparks of that spirit of chivalry for which they are celebrated by Fro issart, remained, sufficient to inspire elevation of sentiment and gallantry towards the fair sex. The familiarity and kindness which had long subsisted between the gentry and the peasantry, could not all at once be obliterated, and this connexion tended to sweeten rural life. In this state of innocence, ease, and tranquillity of mind, the love of poetry and music would still maintain its ground, though it would naturally assume a form congenial to the more peaceful state of society. The minstrels whose metrical tales used once to rouse

the borderers like the trumpet's sound, had been, by an order of the legislature (in 1579), classed with rogues and vagabonds, and attempted to be suppressed. Knox and his disciples influenced the Scottish parliament, but contended in vain with her rural muse. Amidst our Arcadian vales, probably on the banks of the Tweed, or some of its tributary streams, one or more original geniuses may have arisen, who were destined to give a new turn to the taste of their countrymen. They would see that the events and pursuits which chequer private life, were the proper subjects for popular poetry. Love, which had formerly held a divided sway with glory and ambition, became now the master passion of the soul. To pourtray in lively and delicate colours, though with a hasty hand, the hopes and fears that agitate the breast of the love-sick swain, or forlorn maiden, affords ample scope to the rural poet. Love-songs, of which Tibullus himself would not have been ashamed, might be composed by an uneducated rustic with a slight tincture of letters; or if in these songs the character of the rustic be sometimes assumed, the truth of character and the language of nature are preserved. With unaffected simplicity and tenderness, topies are urged, most likely to soften the heart of a cruel and coy mistress, or to regain a fickle lover. Even in such as are of a melancholy east, a ray of hope breaks through, and dispels the deep and settled gloom which characterizes the sweetest of the Highland luenigs, or vocal airs. Nor are these songs all plaintive; many of them are lively and humorous, and some appear, to us, coarse and indelicate. They seem, however, genuine descriptions of the manners of an ener getic and sequestered people in their hours of mirth and festivity, though in their portraits some objects are brought into open view, which more fastidious painters would have thrown into shade.

"As those rural poets sung for amusement, not for gain, their effusions seldom exceeded a love song, or a ballad of satire or humour, which, like

the works of the elder minstrels, were seldom committed to writing, but treasured up in the memory of their friends and neighbours. Neither known to the learned nor patronized by the great, these rustic bards lived and died in obscurity; and, by a strange fatality, their story, and even their very names, have been forgotten". When proper models for pastoral songs were produced, there would be no want of imitators. To succeed in this spe cies of composition, soundness of understanding and sensibility of heart were more requisite, than flights of imagination, or pomp of numbers. Great changes have certainly taken place in Scottish song-writing, though we cannot trace the steps of this change, and few of the pieces admired in Queen Mary's time, are now to be discovered in modern collections. It is possible, though not pro bable, that the music may have remained nearly the same, though the words to the tunes were entirely new-modelled+."

These conjectures are highly ingenious. It cannot however be presumed that the state of ease and tranquillity described by Mr. Ramsay, took place among the Scottish peasantry immediately on the union of the crowns, or indeed during the greater part of the seventeenth century. The Scottish nation, through all its ranks, was deeply agitated by the civil wars, and the religious persecutions which succeeded each other in that disastrous period; it was not till after the revolution

In the Pepys collection, there are a few Scottish songs of the last century, but the names of the authors are not preserved.

+ Extract of a letter from Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre to the editor, Sept. 11, 1799. In the Bee, vol. II, p. 201, is a communication of Mr. Ramsay, under the signature of J. Runeole, which enters into this subject somewhat more at large. In that paper, he gives his reasons for questioning the antiquity of many of the most celebrated Scot tish songs.