songs were to be sung, and this critical observation of their fitness,
had much to do with the extraordinary melodiousness of so many of
them.

We have seen that Burns received an important impulse to
productiveness through his cooperation in the compiling of two
national song collections. James Johnson, the editor of the first of
these, was an all but illiterate engraver, ill-equipped for such an
undertaking; and as the work grew in scale until it reached six
volumes, Burns became virtually the editor--even writing the prefaces
to several of the volumes. George Thomson, the editor of the other, _A
Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs_, was a government clerk,
an amateur in music, of indifferent taste and with a preference for
English to the vernacular. In his collection the airs were harmonized
by Pleyel, Kozeluch, Haydn, and Beethoven; and he had the impudence to
meddle with the contributions both of Burns and of the eminent
composers who arranged the melodies. Nothing is more striking than the
patience and modesty of Burns in tolerating the criticism and
alterations of Thomson. The main purpose in both _The Scots Musical
Museum_ and the _Select Collection_ was the preservation of the
national melodies, but when the editors came to seek words to go with
them they found themselves confronted with a difficult problem. To
understand its nature, it will be necessary to extend our historical
survey.

In addition to the effects of the Reformation in Scotland already
indicated, there was another even more serious for arts and letters.
The reaction against Catholicism in Scotland was peculiarly violent,
and the form of Protestantism which replaced it was extremely
puritanical. In the matter of intellectual education, it is true,
Knox's ideas and institutions were enlightened, and have borne
important fruit in making prevail in his country an uncommonly high
level of general education and a reverence for learning. But on the
artistic side the reformed ministers were the enemies not only of
everything that suggested the ornateness of the old religion, but of
beauty in every form. Under their influence, an influence
extraordinarily pervasive and despotic, art and song were suppressed,
and Scotland was left a very mirthless country, absorbed in
theological and political discussion, and having little outlet for the
instinct of sport except heresy-hunting.

Such at least seemed to be the case on the surface. But human na