But, though verse be not essential to poetry, a certain melody or modulation of voice, analogous probably to verse, seems to have been the dress in which poetical composition first appeared. So correct is this opinion that poetry and music are allowed by all to have had the same origin. " The first poets sung their own verses ; and hence the beginning of what we call versification, or words arranged in a more artful order than prose, so as to be suited to some tune or melody. The liberty of trans position or inversion, which the poetic style would natu rally assume, made it easier to form the words into some sort of numbers that fell in with the music of the song. Very harsh and uncouth, we may easily believe, these numbers would be at first. But the pleasure was felt ; it was studied; and versification by degrees passed into an art." (Blair's Lectures, ii. 223.) Music and poetry, be ing thus coeval, continued intimately connected till music began to be studied as a separate art, divested of the poet's song, and formed into the artificial and intricate combina tions of harmony, thus losing all its ancient power of in flaming the heart with strong emotions, and becoming an art of mere amusement among polished and luxurious na tions.
The origin of the art which we have thus endeavoured to define and characterize, must be referred to the re motest antiquity. The Greeks, indeed, have given a mythological account of its origin, and have ascribed the honour of it to their ancient deities, or to their first dis tinguished bards, to Apollo and the muses, to Orpheus, Linus, Mustus. But this opinion is evidently fabulous. To explore the rise of poetry, we need not have recourse to refined and accomplished nations. Poetry has its origin in the nature of man, and belongs to every age and to every country. It belongs in particular to the simplest and most unsophisticated manners. It. first appeared in the deserts and the wilds, among hunters and shepherds, in the first generations of the world, or in the rudest state of society, before refinement had polished or learning had illumined mankind. And, consistently with this opinion, we find poetry, not only more common, but more pure and impassioned, in those nations, the inhabitants of which are the farthest removed from the luxury, learning, and refinement of civilized life. Poetry, indeed, seems to lose its original character of boldness, originality, and enthusiasm, and to become timid, unnatural, and artifi cial, in proportion as the people by whom it is cultivated arc removed from the state of rude and savage existence. Hence it is that we find the wild Indians of America em ploy, in their treaties and public transactions, bolder meta phors, more splendid gorgeousness of style, than the ci vilized nations of Europe in their most elevated poetical productions. Having concluded a treaty of peace with the British, the Five nations of Canada expressed them selves by their chiefs in the following language. " We are happy in having buried under ground the red axe, that has often been dyed with the blood of our brethren. Now, in this sort, we inter the axe and plant the tree of peace.
We plant a tree whose top will reach the sun, and its branches spread abroad, so that it shall be seen afar off. May its growth never he stifled and choked ; but may it. shade both your country and ours with its leaves ! Let us make fast its roots, and extend them to the utmost bounds of your colonies. If the French should come to shake the tree, we should know it by the motion of its roots reaching into our country. May the Great Spirit allow us to rest in tranquillity upon our mats, and never dig up the axe to cut down the tree of peace! Let the earth be trod hard over it where it lies buried. Let a strong stream run under the pit to wash the evil away out of our sight and remembrance. The fire that had long burned in Al bany is extinguished. The bloody bed is washed clean, and the tears are wiped from our eyes. We now renew the covenant chain of friendship. Let it be kept bright and clear as silver, and not suffered to contract any rust. Let not any one pull away his arm from it." (Cadwalla der Colden's History of the Five Indian Nations.)
Nor is this a solitary and unsupported instance. Of the principle we are labouring to establish, the poems of Os sian afford a striking illustration : and innumerable other references might be made, (see particularly an Essay on Sclavonic poetry, published in Letters on Poland, 1823, and Von Troil's Letters on Iceland,) as a proof how inse parably, in rude periods of society, poetry is connected with the feelings and principles of every class and condi tion of men, particularly on moving and interesting occa sions. Among all savage tribes, indeed, with whom we have yet had any intercourse, poetical effusions, rude probably, but true to nature, obtain in an extraordinary degree. This fact has been established by the minute and concurring accounts of travellers. Their religious rites are celebrated in song. By songs they lament their public and private calamities, the death of friends, or the loss of warriors. By these they express their joy on their victo ries, record and embalm the bravery of their heroes, ex cite each other to perform feats of valour, and to encoun ter death or torments with inflexible firmness. Agreeably to this opinion, Moses and Miriam, the first authors known to us, offered upon the banks of the Red Sea, a song of praise to the Almighty, for the deliverance which, through his miraculous assistance, they had experienced from Egyptian bondage. This song has been transmitted to us, and forms not only the most ancient monument, but an unrivalled specimen, of poetical composition. * " Thy right hand, 0 Lord, is become glorious in power : thy right hand, 0 Lord, bath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellence thou Nast over thrown them that rose up against thee : thou sendedst forth thy wrath which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered toge ther ; the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil : my lust shall be ,'satisfied upon them : I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them : they sunk as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, 0 Lord, among the gods ? Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ?" * * From these varied examples, it is evident that poetry, except in common conversation, or in reference to every day occurrences, is of greater antiquity than prose. His tory, law, theology, were all embodied and transmitted from age to age in poetic numbers. The prophets of the Hebrews " prophesied," we arc told, " with the psaltery, tabret, and harp, before them." With the Arabians and Persians, poetry was the earliest form and medium of all their learning and instruction : their proverbs and moral maxims were moulded into verse like the writings of So lomon or the book of Job. slinos and Thales sung to the lyre the laws which they composed and disseminated. Tacitus mentions the hymns of the Germans, at a time when that rude people lived in the woods in circumstances of savage existence ; and the Runic songs of all the Go thic tribes formed the source whence the more early wri ters of their history drew their most important informa tion. Among the Celtic nations poetry was, if possible, more assiduously cultivated and more deeply venerated : their Wads were held in such high estimation, that even their persons were regarded as sacred. So much, in an cient times, was poetry the vehicle in which national, local, and individual history was embodied, that even in periods comparatively recent, historians, imbibing the an cient spirit, have clothed their compositions in a similar dress,—a fact of which our countrymen Lermont, Bar bour, Winton, form conspicuous instances. In short, history, eloquence, poetry, were coeval, and synonimous or at least analogous terms. Whoever, in these rude ages, wished to move or to persuade, to instruct or to interest his friends or his countrymen, whatever was the subject on which he descanted, had recourse to the harmony of numbers and the melody of song.