ppears still another and yet the
same. The lady of ballads is always worthy of love and song; but there
are instructive differences in the treatment she receives. Sometimes she
is oppressed by a harsh parent; sometimes wrongfully accused by a wicked
servant, or a false knight; sometimes her soft nature is exasperated
into revenge; sometimes she is represented as fallen, but always, in
that case, as enduring retribution. Upon the whole, the testimony is
strong in favour of bravery in men, and purity in women, and constancy
in both;--and this in the whole range of popular poetry, from ancient
Arabic effusions, through centuries of European song, up to the Indian
chants which may yet be heard on the shores of the wide western lakes.
The distinguishing attributes of great men bear a strong resemblance,
from the days when all Greece rang with the musical celebration of
Harmodius and Aristogiton, through the age of Charlemagne, up to the
triumphs of Bolivar: and women have been adored for the same qualities,
however variously set forth, from the virgin with gazelle eyes of three
thousand years ago, to the dames who witnessed the conflicts of the Holy
Land, and onwards to the squaw who calls upon her husband not to forget
her in the world of spirits, and to our Burns' Highland Mary.

What the traveller has to look to is, that he does not take one aspect
of the popular mind for the whole, or a temporary state of the popular
mind for a permanent one,--though, from the powerful action of national
song, this temporary state is likely to become a permanent one by its
means. As an instance of the first, the observer would be mistaken in
judging of more than a class of English from some of the best songs they
have,--Dibdin's sea songs. They are too fair a representation of the
single class to which they pertain, though they have done much to foster
and extend the spirit of generosity, simplicity, activity, gaiety, and
constant love, which they breathe. They have undoubtedly raised the
character of the British navy, and are to a great degree indicative of
the naval spirit with us: but they present only one aspect of the
national mind. In Spain, again, the songs with which the mountains are
ringing, and whose origin is too remote to be traced, are no picture of
the conventional mind of the aristocratic classes. As an instance of the
false conclusions which might be drawn from the popular songs of a brief
period, we may look to the revol