The meetings, except the first and second, were graced and enlivened by the presence of a very few ladies, whose discreet reserve of their opinions did not deprive the committee entirely of the benefit of their quick intelligence and highly cultivated taste. The sportive peremptoriness with which they cried "basket," upon the reading of a song which at once depressed the spirits of the critical tribunal, quite rivalled the pretty austerity with which the Roman ladies turned down their thumbs upon the poor gladiator, who was so weak as to implore their pity instead of conquering their admiration. And slanderous asserters of the curiosity of the sex will blush to learn that these ladies did not even put the committee to the pain of refusing them a single peep into the sealed envelopes containing the authors' names; although the feminine hands upon so many of the queer productions, gave tempting occasion for the indulgence of a little innocent malice, at the expense of a cerulean sister.

But what was the standard by which the hymns were tried? The conditions stated in the first three paragraphs of the committee's proposal were of course insisted on. I venture to say that they are both intrinsically and relatively good; and that no song which does not conform to them will ever be adopted as our national hymn. That it should be purely patriotic and adapted to the whole country in its normal state, no one will dispute. That a mere war song is not needed even by a people who are so eager for military glory as the French, is shown by the fact that

they keep their Marseillaise for extraordinary occasions. It has been well said by one of the members of the Committee-Mr. Curtis-"Any truly patriotic national hymn is, of necessity, the great peace song and the great war song of the nation. It fits every emotion of the national heart. It is the national heart-beat set to music." A song of less than sixteen lines cannot well say enough, and one of more than about forty is too long to be remembered. Here the Marseillaise-cut down from the original six to three stanzas-again furnishes illustration and support. A chorus is necessary; for the main object is that a throng of people may join in the hymn, and it is not reasonable to expect that, a miscellaneous crowd of Americans should master the whole of a song, words and music. Nor is it desirable; the effect of contrast in solo and chorus is too fine to lose. That a song, intended to please all, to dwell in all ears, and to suit all ordinary voices, should be simple in melody and harmony, and marked in rhythm, I apprehend that no one will dispute. In these respects, "God Save the King" is a model, unsurpassable, almost unapproachable for us at least. The broken rhythm of the melody of the Marseillaise and the modulations upon which its melody depends, would unfit it for popular singing by a nation of our race. Yet we might well accept a somewhat more spirited, though not less regular, melody than that of "God Save the King."

But these are only the formal, and so to speak the

cxternal conditions of our national hymn. What should be its spirit and its style? Must it needs have great lyric excellence? Should it be enriched by imagination and fancy? What should be its motive? For what should it express love and admiration? to what, devotion? What should be the style of its music? These are hard questions. For to prescribe what will suit the public taste and touch the popular heart, is the most delicate, difficult, and uncertain office that could be assumed. No degree of culture, no keenness of perception, not even a high degree of responsive sympathy can insure a happy choice. The chord that will thrill the heart of a nation when struck, however casually, cannot be certainly designated. The most gifted poet or rapt musician might fail to arrest the popular attention when he essayed to sing, not only to the people, but for them; while some chance-uttered strain, expressing only the emotion of a simple, untaught nature, might be caught up, spontaneously adopted, and become the rallying note of a whole nation.

To try a national hymn by a high critical standard; to demand for it an unusual degree of lyric merit, and to insist that the poetry should be equal to the theme, would be a grave critical error. Such a standard as this is false for any song that is written to be sung. "Music married to immortal verse," is a very fine thing for a poet to write about; but an almost impossible thing to find. Apollo seems to have forbidden the bans of that much desired union. There, indeed, are some rare exceptions to this general rule. Of the

lovely canzonet, "She never told her love," for instance, the words are by Shakespeare and the music by Haydn. Illustrious conjunction! And yet, although its sentiment is one which all the world must feel, how rarely is it heard! It is remarkable that most popular songs are of very moderate, if not decidedly inferior, poetic merit; and that their music rarely delights ears which listen to songs purely for music's sake; which people of our race generally do not. But they will almost invariably be found to express or suggest some strong sentiment common to the people among whom they are sung, or to bring up vividly some cherished association. Few poorer songs have lived for half a century than "Home, sweet home;" and yet it shall bring tears into a thousand manly eyes on the banks of the Potomac sooner than the most pathetic strain of Pergolesi or Bellini. That the popular taste is sympathetic rather than artistic, must be seen and known of all men. In a song that they can sing with their whole hearts, people to whom music and poetry are not special gifts or acquirements, will forgive faults of structure and language which would drive a critic to despair. And who thinks of or cares for the words of an opera! Unhappy they who should! But there it is the situation or the sentiment alone to which the music must be moulded. Cuore and amore, "verdant plains" and

"

happy swains" answer the purpose as well as if Anacreon or Pindar wrote. For music is its own inspiration; and words are but the occasion of its production, and the vehicle of its utterance. Songs

which are intrinsically beautiful, like Shakespeare's, for instance, and Herrick's, need no music to complete their lyric expression. They are both words and music, and sing themselves.*

If a high lyric standard is generally false for songs written for music, it is especially so when applied to a national hymn. Lyric beauties are not essential to those songs: nay, the tribunal which passes upon this question seems to have decided that they are hardly admissible. How many noble lyrics have been written by British authors; songs graced with all the beauty of poetic art, aglow with patriotic fervor, and sounding with a pyrrhic clash! But none of them have really attained popularity save Thomson's "Rule Britannia," which has the least poetic merit of them all, which is set to music almost ridiculous, and which has attained its place only by virtue of the arrogant self-assertion of the words, and particularly the precipitate assurance of the chorus that

"Britons never, never, never, shall be slaves.' And in the Marseillaise there are none of the graces of poetry. With a single exception, not a line con

* The only song of Shakespeare's which has not been marred by the music to which it is set is that exquisite one in "As You Like It," "Blow, blow, thou winter wind," which Dr. Arne gave fitting voice ⚫ to by a special and, I believe, an isolated inspiration. As to the music which Locke wrote for the songs in "Macbeth," truly it is manufactured after a very workmanlike fashion; but is otherwise only valuable as an example of the degree of incongruity which there may be between music and the words which the composer believes inspired it. The words are so weird, and the music is so formal and respectable, and with a tio-wig formality and respectability, that the effect of the combination is pure burlesque.