44 ST. KILDA. HIGHLAND MUSIC. 



sations, to discriminate between the effects of a simple 

 impression, and those arising from association ; nor would 

 it be easy to persuade a strenuous admirer of all that 

 is called Scottish music, that his admiration is indiscri- 

 minate, and is derived from prejudices and early associa- 

 tions rather than from a distinct feeling of the beauty of 

 that which he esteems the perfection of music. In many 

 instances, it is founded rather on the poetry than on the 

 music ; and, by aid of the exquisite verse so often attached 

 to them, have many of these compositions attained a 

 celebrity to which their own merits do not appear to 

 entitle them. In this respect however, with some good, 

 much harm has also been done by modern innovators ; 

 who, regardless of the characters long consecrated by habit 

 and association, or of those belonging to the very essence 

 of the melody, have, with an utter disregard of taste, united 

 the pathetic with the ludicrous, or the reverse ; or have, 

 with the rude airs of the mountain glen or the careless 

 lilt of the shepherd boy, associated the Delias and Stre- 

 phons of modern pastoral, or the refined verse of our more 

 recent lyric poets. Burns alone appears to have combined 

 the true feelings of a Scottish musician with those of a 

 Scottish poet; and, had he been an educated musician, 

 would have doubtless, not only refined and separated the 

 true from the false, but, had time been granted him, 

 completed that pure association between the two, of which 

 he has left such admirable specimens. The adaptations 

 of his own lyrics to the airs of his early affections, present 

 a model for all Scottish musicians, as his poetry offers 

 examples that will not easily be rivalled. 



To illustrate these remarks by a corresponding analysis 

 of the present extensive catalogue of Scottish music, 

 would require a volume of musical criticism : it is even 

 impossible to notice a few of the airs which would be 

 required to explain them, without a species of illustration 

 which is here inadmissible. It is nevertheless easy to 

 perceive, as already suggested, that many of the Scottish 

 airs of supposed Lowland origin are, in fact, Gaelic 



