Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/19

6 by Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders. The magnificent literary qualities of the best of these ballads, their strength, fire, and power, were soon recognised, and exercised an immense influence on modern poetry by calling men from artificiality back to the simplicity and directness of nature. Gaelic songs have to some extent a similar function to perform. Like the ballads of Yarrow, they have a strange, weird power to move intimate depths of feeling that are untouched by artistic modern music. They appeal to something in the blood, and bear the charm of the far-away past. A deep interest in folk-songs not only develops the musical talent, but also kindles a new love and respect for the people that produced them. Some may be led on to extend their interest to the songs of other nations, especially Ireland and Wales and Lowland Scotland. Thus the intellectual horizon ever widens and capacities ripen, and life is enriched.

But I fear the actual is still far from the ideal. A low standard of musical taste obtains in many districts of the country. The programmes of village concerts often contain the vulgar, and worse than vulgar, drivel of the music halls. The lack of culture that can find enjoyment in these productions is deplorable. There is great need to raise the standard of taste by substituting something better, by teaching the youth to value their own beautiful folk-songs, pure as the crystal streams of the mountain, composed by their own gifted ancestors, and to despise and abhor the ribald stuff produced by the hacks of Grub Street, and consecrated to the Goddess of Lubricity. An influential society has recently been formed in Glasgow and Edinburgh to combat this evil by the cultivation of Scottish song pretty much on the lines of our own Mòd.

Another point I wish to mention is that a knowledge of Gaelic helps in the study of history, particularly the history of the Highlands. No man can claim to be well educated if ignorant of the history of his own land or his own shire. Much of the history of the past is hidden away in obscure references in old MSS. or other literature. Particularly for those who undertake research work a knowledge of Gaelic is