Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/18

Rh intelligently studied, will lead to a larger interest in the folklore of other countries—a rich field for mental culture. ‘Folklore,’ says one authority, ‘has an inherent though long unsuspected faculty of throwing light backwards on the history of human civilisation.’ It is said that in Brittany is to be found the ‘richest and most developed folklore in the world, the best stories and songs.’ Now, had the Bretons lost their old language these treasures would also have been lost. It is only in recent years that learned men have come to realise that there exists in Brittany a popular literature of extraordinary wealth. Every effort is being made to preserve these treasures. We, too, have our treasures: let us prize and cherish them. Our best literature loses its aroma when translated, and only yields the secret of its charm to the Gaelic reader. There is much material both in old and modern Gaelic for the cultivation of the imagination, and the education of the mind and heart. To mention but one writer, what a fine humanising kindly spirit breathes through the works of Dr. Norman M‘Leod. He is as good in his own way as any of the modern English writers of the school of Barrie and Ian M‘Laren. His splendid command of idiom, his dignified and nervous Gaelic, his human tenderness and humour are a liberal education.

There is again the important subject of musical culture in the Highlands. A love of good music may most easily and pleasantly be fostered by the teaching of folk-songs in the schools. This is being increasingly recognised and even insisted on by H.M. Inspectors. Some may affect to despise the simple songs of the people, and profess enthusiasm for the great composers of classical music. But if any musician thinks folk-song beneath his notice he simply displays his own ignorance. The most highly cultivated musicians of England and Scotland were never more deeply interested in folk-music and song than they are to-day. To point out an historical parallel,—for long the old Scottish ballads were treated as the worthless productions of uneducated, wandering minstrels. But what a change came over the opinions of men of culture when Percy’s Reliques were published, followed later as a direct result