a charm or fascination in the presence of Numbers, which penetrates our whole life. Besides forming attachments to individuals, under the strong instincts of sex and parentage, and by virtue of reciprocated services, we take delight in encountering even indifferent persons, when they are aggregated in numbers, small or large. In the family gathering, there are individual attachments, and also the influence of collectiveness. As the sphere of society is enlarged, the thrill of numbers is increased, notwithstanding the diminution of individual regards. The periodical gatherings of villages, townships,-are regular institutions, connected with religion, public business or amusements: and the ostensible purpose is often the smallest part of the attraction.

Even the physical gratifications of life are notoriously heightened by sociable participation. The hilarity of a feast is only partly due to the pleasure of the table. The outbursts of joyousness usually reach their highest strain in the company of a multitude. The vast assemblies brought together by military array, by games, festivals or popular demonstrations, have a thrilling effect on every individual.

The case of sociable emotion is not overlooked in art representations. The painter includes among his subjects the gatherings of numbers in armies, and popular congregations in every form. Poetry also embraces the topic, although it is very apt to be merged in the fighting interest of hostile masses. Milton repeatedly pictures the vastness of his hosts, both angelic and Satanic, without reference to their being actually engaged in combat. There is a mode of description suited to awaken the thrill of numbers, without the more exciting inspiration of warlike strength. To see this in its purity, we have to refer to the delineation of peaceable gatherings for a common object, as festivals and games. In quoting the legends of Delos, as embodied in. the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Grote pictures the games periodically held at Dêlos in honour of the god. The expressions chosen are carefully suited to make us ideally present at a splendid gathering, and to recall something of the thrill of numbers, as we may have actually experienced it: -The promise made by Lêtô to Dêlos was faithfully performed amidst the numberless other temples and groves which men provided for him, he ever preferred that island as his permanent residence, and there the Ionians with their wives and children, and all their "bravery," congregated perio

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185

dically from their different cities to glorify him. Dance and song and athletic contests adorned the solemnity, and the countless ships, wealth, and grace of the multitudinous Ionians had the air of an assembly of gods. The Delian maidens, servants of Apollo, sang hymns to the glory of the god, as well as of Artemis and Lêtô, intermingled with adventures of foregone men and women, to the delight of the listening crowd.' The language is at every point suggestive not only of multitude, but of selectness and distinction, by which the influence of numbers is greatly heightened.

The art of representing social gatherings has reached a high development in our time. The newspaper report of a great public ceremonial or amusement studies every contrivance of language that can give impressiveness to the delineation. The chief Rhetorical maxim in connexion with the art is to consider scenic description in the first instance, while qualifying that by the exhibition of numerical array. To this is added the minute picturing of a few select portions and incidents, which assist in vivifying the whole, and put the reader nearly in the position of the spectator. The extent and form of the aggregate mass can be given in the first instance by literal phraseology, and be afterwards augmented by all the circumstances that suggest a multitudinous host and the variety of its active manifestations.

The

The picturing of Numbers with a view to awakening the gregarious thrill is a suiting introduction to the literary embodiment of the Patriotic form of tender interest. sentiment towards our country and fellow-countrymen contains a portion of this interest along with purely egotistic feeling.

A small amount of Tender interest mingles with more purely egotistic feelings in the sentiment towards country and fellow-countrymen.

Common interests, companionship, sympathy and mutual good offices engender a kind and friendly regard towards neighbours, co-members of societies small and great, and fellow-subjects of the same political body; allowance being made for rivalry and partisanship, which operate to cause alienation and hatred.

It is the business of the poet to look, by preference, on

the amicable side of human beings united in society, and to shape ideals accordingly.

The poetry of patriotic sentiment has most frequently taken the form of rousing to arms in case of attack from without. This is a species of oratory, using the form of verse for readier access to men's feelings.

Poetry is also employed by every nation to extol itself and decry other nations. Such compositions can scarcely be said to illustrate the art of embodying our tender sentiments.

There are some examples of a purer treatment of patriotic regards, where love is more conspicuous than either selfesteem or hatred.

The principles of effect are the same as reign in all the species of tender feeling. They are delineations of the objects in such a way as to inspire the patriotic interest, and the further delineation of the feelings themselves as entertained by individuals or by masses.

Scott's splendid outburst

Breathes there a man with soul so dead

has almost the first place in this kind of poetry. The
circumstances are chosen with felicity, and seem to sustain
and justify all the patriotic warmth that he exacts from
Scotchmen. He touches the two most powerful chords—
scenic grandeurs and ancestral associations. He might
have added a selection from the nation's historic names and
mighty achievements, but was satisfied to dispense with these.
O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!

Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood.
Land of my sires! what mortal hand

Can e'er untie the filial band

That knits me to thy rugged strand!

Still as I view each well-known scene,

Think what is now, and what hath been,

Seems as, to me, of all bereft,

Sole friends thy woods and streams were left;
And thus I love them better still,

Even in extremity of ill.

By Yarrow's streams still let me stray,

Though none should guide my feeble way;
Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break.

Although it chill my withered cheek;
Still lay my head by Teviot stone,
Though there, forgotten and alone,
The bard may draw his parting groan.

POETRY OF PATRIOTISM,

187

Scott's handling is in favourable contrast to Burke's attempt to make the British constitution an object of tender regards.* The best government hardly admits of being viewed in this light; and the historic governments of Scotland were far from the best.

Notwithstanding the beauty of the expression, Coleridge's lines can barely escape the charge of maudlin; which is the necessary consequence of attempting a strain of feeling too high for our sympathies.

O Divine

And beauteous island, thou hast been my sole
And most magnificent temple, in the which
I walk with awe and sing my stately songs,
Loving the God that made me !

Cowper, in the TASK, Book II., adopts a far juster strain of patriotic commendation. The following lines give the tone of the whole passage :—

England, with all thy faults I love thee still,

My country! and, while yet a nook is left

Where English minds and manners may be found,
Shall be constrain'd to love thee.

He loves his country better than all others, though some may be fairer or more fruitful; and the very sincerity of his love makes him regret and reprove the vices and follies that appear among many of his countrymen. This utterance of combined love and faithfulness lends new force to the poetry.

Macaulay has realized a vivid picture of Roman patriotism in his Lays. In the rousing address of Icilius, historic allusions are graphically accumulated, and the objects of domestic feeling finely grouped thus:

Then leave the poor Plebeian his single tie to life-
The sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister and of wife,

The gentle speech, the balm for all that his vexed soul endures,
The kiss, in which he half forgets even such a yoke as yours.
Still let the maiden's beauty swell the father's breast with pride.

Burns's patriotic effusions assume both warlike and tender shapes. Like Cowper, he tempers his exultant emotions with virtuous wishes:

*"In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties; adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections; keeping inseparable, and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars."

O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!

For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent;
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil

Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content!
And oh ! may heaven their simple lives prevent
From luxury's contagion, weak and vile!
Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent,

A virtuous populace may rise the while,

And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved isle.

Somewhat similar is the impression produced by Tenny

son's

Love thou thy land, with love far-brought. There is the same balancing of aims and feelings, but not much tenderness; advice being the chief design of the poem.

The poetry of personal devotion to monarchs, dynasties and great leaders, takes on more of the character of individual attachments. The flame is kept up by ideal pictures of excellence, by the stimulus of the cause represented, and by the collective sympathy of multitudes.

As a typical example of this class of literature, we may cite the Jacobite Songs of Scotland. In the majority of these, there mingles also the pathos of a lost cause.

COMPASSION.-BENEVOLENCE.-CHIVALRY.

This is a true case of Tender Regard, although enlarged in its workings, so as to include strangers as well as those in our own circle. The occasion of the feeling is some form of weakness, inferiority, need, distress or calamity.

The most important aspect of the Tender feeling in such cases is its prompting to active measures of relief or assistance. There is a luxury of Pity that goes no further, and is made a matter of reproach under the name of Sentimentality. The poet cultivates both aspects.

We must distinguish this case from the utterance of sorrow, without reference to help or relief, which makes a ca se apart (PATHOS).

The awakening of simple Pity supposes a picture of need. The additional requisites are, (1) that the common sympathies of mankind should be appealed to, and (2) that the object of pity should be made to appear interesting, either from merit or from some attractive quality.