ar more than they meditated; they recorded
far more than they moralized. The popular ballads are, as a rule,
entirely free from didacticism in any form; that is one of the main
sources of their unfailing charm. They show not only a childlike
curiosity about the doings of the day and the things that befall
men, but a childlike indifference to moral inference and
justification. The bloodier the fray the better for ballad
purposes; no one feels the necessity of apology either for ruthless
aggression or for useless blood-letting; the scene is reported as it
was presented to the eye of the spectator, not to his moralizing
faculty. He is expected to see and to sing, not to scrutinize and
meditate. In those rare cases in which a moral inference is drawn,
it is always so obvious and elementary that it gives the impression
of having been fastened on at the end of the song, in deference to
ecclesiastical rather than popular feeling.

The social and intellectual conditions which fostered
self-unconsciousness,--interest in things, incidents, and adventures
rather than in moods and inward experiences,--and the unmoral or non
moralizing attitude towards events, fostered also that delightful
naivete which contributes greatly to the charm of many of the best
ballads; a naivete which often heightens the pathos, and, at times,
softens it with touches of apparently unconscious humour; the naivete of
the child which has in it something of the freshness of a wildflower,
and yet has also a wonderful instinct for making the heart of the matter
plain. This quality has almost entirely disappeared from contemporary
verse among cultivated races; one must go to the peasants of remote
parts of the Continent to discover even a trace of its presence. It has
a real, but short-lived charm, like the freshness which shines on meadow
and garden in the brief dawn which hastens on to day.

This frank, direct play of thought and feeling on an incident, or
series of incidents, compensates for the absence of a more perfect
art in the ballads; using the word "art" in its true sense as
including complete, adequate, and beautiful handling of
subject-matter, and masterly working out of its possibilities. These
popular songs, so dear to the hearts of the generations on whose lips
they were fashioned, and to all who care for the fresh note, the direct
word, the unrestrained emotion, rarely touch the highest points of
poetic achievement. Their charm lies,