ottish Minstrel," by R.A. Smith (Purdie,
Edinburgh). There are the _words_, also, of a vast number of Scottish
songs, but the account of their _authorship_ is very defective. Then,
again, for the fine Scottish ballads of an older period, we have two
admirable collections--one by Mr. R. Chambers, and one by the late
Professor Aytoun. For Scottish dialect songs of the more modern type, a
copious collection will be found (exclusive of Burns and Allan Earn say)
in small volumes published by David Robertson, Glasgow, at intervals
from 1832 to 1853, under the title of _Whistlebinkie_.

But there are more than lines of Scottish poetry which may become matter
of reminiscence, and more than Scottish song melodies which may be
forgotten. There are strains of Scottish PSALMODY of which it would be
more sad to think that _they_ possibly may have lost their charm and
their hold with Scottish people. That such psalmody, of a peculiar
Scottish class and character, _has_ existed, no one can doubt who has
knowledge or recollection of past days. In glens and retired passes,
where those who fled from persecution met together--on the moors and
heaths, where men suffering for their faith took refuge--in the humble
worship of the cottar's fireside--were airs of sacred Scottish melody,
which were well calculated to fan the heavenward flame which was kindled
in lays of the "sweet Psalmist of Israel." These psalm-tunes are in
their way as peculiar as the song-tunes we have referred to. Nothing can
be more touching than the description by Burns of the domestic psalmody
of his father's cottage. Mr. E. Chambers, in his _Life of Burns_,
informs us that the poet, during his father's infirmity and after his
death, had himself sometimes conducted family worship. Happy days, ere
he had encountered the temptations of a world in which he had too often
fallen before the solicitations of guilty passion! and then, beautifully
does he describe the characteristic features of this portion of the
cottars worship. How solemnly he enumerates the psalm-tunes usually made
use of on such occasions, and discriminates the character of each:--

"They chant their artless notes in simple guise;
They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim:
Perhaps DUNDEE'S wild warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive MARTYRS, worthy of the name,
Or noble ELGIN beets[17] the heavenward flame."

He was not, alas! always disposed in after life to reverence th