definitely ſettled. There is a ſchiſm among critics on its nature and character. It is a compound of delicate eſſences and incommunicable graces which bids defiance to definition. But we know that popular ſongs muſt be the energetic and faithful tranſcripts of general experience and feelings. Their neceſſary characteriſtics are fancy, paſſion, dramatic effect, rapidity, and pathos. They are not transferable; the popular ſatire and humour of one country cannot be adequately reliſhed by another; nor, in the fame country, are ſuch productions ſo influential on public opinion in ſubſequent periods of its hiſtory, as when they firſt appeared. Time blunts the inſtrument, and deadens the national perceptions of the witty and ridiculous.”
The real value and importance of ſuch ephemeral productions may be beſt diſcerned in the volumes of the late Lord Macaulay, the only native hiſtorian who has thought them worthy of his particular ſtudy and uſe. It is no diſparagement to the literary fame of that diſtinguiſhed writer, to affirm that they have imparted to his pages a vitality which the profoundeſt knowledge of the principles of human action, combined with the greateſt erudi-
