e begins to be
purified into love,--it is then that the popular songs, by acquiring a
higher character themselves, come to produce a still more powerful
reaction upon the character of the people. These songs, produced by the
most highly-gifted of the tribe,--by those who feel most strongly, and
express their feelings most happily,--convey ideas of greater elevation
and refinement than are as yet familiar; but not so far removed from the
ordinary habits of thinking as to be unintelligible. The hero who
devotes himself to death for the safety of his country, with a firmness
as yet almost without example in the actual history of the race,--and
the lover, who follows his mistress through every danger, and perhaps
dies for her sake,--become objects on which every one delights to dwell,
and models which the braver and nobler spirits are thus incited to
emulate. The songs of rude nations, accordingly, and those in which they
take most pleasure, are filled with the most romantic instances of
courage, fidelity, and generosity; and it cannot be supposed that such
delightful and elevating pictures of human nature can be constantly
before the eyes of any people, without producing a great effect on their
character. The same considerations are applicable to the effects of
popular ballads upon the most numerous classes of society, even in
civilized nations."

It appears that popular songs are both the cause and effect of general
morals: that they are first formed, and then react. In both points of
view they serve as an index of popular morals. The ballads of a people
present us, not only with vivid pictures of the common objects which are
before their eyes,--given with more familiarity than would suit any
other style of composition,--but they present also the most prevalent
feelings on subjects of the highest popular interest. If it were not so,
they would not have been popular songs. The traveller cannot be wrong in
concluding that he sees a faithful reflection of the mind of a people in
their ballads. When he possesses the popular songs of former centuries,
he holds the means of transporting himself back to the scenes of the
ancient world, and finds himself a spectator of its most active
proceedings. Wars are waged beneath his eye, and the events of the chase
grow to a grandeur which is not dreamed of now. Love, the passion of all
times, and the staple of all songs, varies in its expression among
every people and in every age, and a