pirit these popular songs breathe, the reader may learn from the
collections already published. Without encountering contradiction, we
may say, that among no other nation of Europe does natural poetry
exist to such an extent, and in such purity, heartiness, and warmth of
feeling, as among the Slavi." [4]

Although we recognize in the last sentence the voice of a Slavic
enthusiast, we copy the whole of his remarks as perfectly true; and
would only add, that we do not consider "heartiness and warmth of
feeling" more a characteristic feature of Slavic than of Teutonic
popular poetry. As for the purity and universality with which popular
poetry is preserved among the Slavic nations, we strongly fear, that
the chief cause of these advantages lies in the barrenness of their
literature, and in the utter ignorance among the common people even of
its elements.

Before we attempt to carry our reader more deeply into this subject,
we must ask him to divest himself as much as possible of his personal
and national feelings, views, and prejudices, and to suffer himself to
be transported into a world foreign to his habitual course of ideas.
Human feelings, it is true, are the same every where; but we have more
of the artificial and factitious in us than we are aware of. And in
many cases, we hold, that it is not the worst part of us; for we are
far from belonging to the class of advocates of mere nature. The
reader, for instance, must not expect to find in all the immense
treasure of Slavic love-songs, adapted to a variety of situations, a
single trace of _romance_, that beautiful blossom of Christianity
among the Teutonic races. The love expressed in the Slavic songs is
the natural, heartfelt, overpowering sensation of the human breast, in
all its different shades of tender affection and glowing sensuality;
never elevating but always natural, always unsophisticated, and much
deeper, much purer in the female heart, than in that of man. In their
heroic songs, also, the reader must not expect to meet with the
chivalry of the more western nations. Weak vestiges of this kind of
exaltation, with a few exceptions, are to be found among those Slavic
nations only, who, by frequent intercourse with other races, adopted
in part their feelings. The gigantic heroism of the Slavic Woiwodes
and Boyars is not the bravery of honour; it is the valour of manly
strength, the valour of the heroes of Homer. The Servian hero, Marko
Kralyewitch, was regar