ion,
which marks by itself the feeling that pervades the whole ballad; at
other times they are merely descriptive of nature, and borrow their
enlivening or heart-rending character from the assimilation or contrast
they present with the groundwork of the poetry. The origin of this kind
of refrain is evidently due to the manner in which the ballads were
composed. Mainly extemporized, both words and music, by wandering scalds
or minstrels, the refrain was a pause to enable the singer to compose
the next line. The utter disregard of rhyme, alliterations the most
slight and imperceptible, and words of no similarity of sound almost
always taking their place, rendered this a very easy task. A thorough
knowledge and mastery of legendary lore, and a little power and
concentration of thought and imagery, were the only qualities requisite
for a ballad-monger. Some of them bear the marks of superior minds, both
by their wonderful vividness of description and by the tone of deep,
genuine feeling which pervades them throughout.

There is a wonderful affinity between the Scotch and the Norwegians and
Swedes, especially in their traditionary literature, which marks a
common origin and common customs at some remote period. We find among
the genuine Scotch ballads many that are almost literal versions of the
same Scandinavian legends no less indigenous in their own land. A large
number of the most beautiful Scotch ballads plainly point to an
extraneous Northern origin, and their exact counterparts in form, ideas,
and words, we find circulating as popular songs among the Swedish,
Danish, and Norwegian peasantry. These may often be traced back
centuries, at the end of which they seem still to be as old and as
thoroughly implanted in their native soil as they now seem. They have
been sung from mouth to mouth, with the same wild old melodies and the
same quaint language, as they were sung centuries ago among the scenes
they so faithfully depict.

The characteristics we have so briefly alluded to as marking the two
classes of nations, namely, mysterious grandeur among the Northmen, and
among the Greeks ideality, grandness, and vividness of conception, might
by skillful hands be traced in more modern times under the influence of
an ever-changing and growing civilization. I will only allude, in
passing, to a few prominent points.

The literature of Greece, as we know it, had already reached its hight,
two thousand years before our time. It w