The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-24

But then these are exactly the sort of
didactie touches which only weaken either
patriotic or war songs. They are really
touches meant to "improve the occasion, of
which German poetry has always been too
fond and which cannot but injure its popu-
larity. You might compose almost book of
homilies for King William and his great un-
scrupulous Minister, out of some of the stu
dent songs about Deutschland and Freiheit-
songs from which they may learn, for in
stance, that a half freedom, conceded in
hurry, and then, again, shamefully with
drawn, is not the right sort of thing; that the
mere suppression of a censor without reform
of the press laws is no good; that
the mere legal extraction from the rich of
contribution for the poor is not the right sort
of thing, and so forth. But we may say, with
full certainty, that this sort of thing, however
true, is not of the stuff which really animates
armies or peoples with new enthusiasm,
and kindles them for the moment into truly
mystical unity. That is at once much SIM
pier and a much more difficult matter-sim-
pier, because it demands the minimum of in
tellectual effort, and more difficult because it
demands the maximum of breadth and in,
tensity in the expression of national feeling,
and above all, distinctive national touches,
touches that excite what we may call the
hereditary imagination of the race appealed
to. Of course, the particular features, moral
IA well as physical, which are apt to excite
the most real popular enthusiasm, are differ
ent in kind in different countries. Not only
must Scotch war songs refer to Wallace and
Bruce or Bannockburn, or the Scotch heather
and the Scotch mountains and lakes; while
the English must refer to the English navy
and the conquest of the Armada, to Nelson
and the white English cliffs; the French to
the memories of their great revolution and
empire, their vine-clad hills, and their
l~rs< nit md To fha
great triumphs of their free thought and the
romantic legends of their chief river-but
the central feeling in all these cases will be
different. English songs of this kind de-
light in playing round the feelings engen-
dered by our insularity, and are, therefore,
predominantly nautical as heard; but they
not only delight to dwell on "the flag that
braved thousand years the battle and the
breeze" but they generally lay less stress on
the cause to be fought for than on the delight
of the conflict and of the blows by which it is
to be defended; they take their joy in the
struggle itself almost more than in the thing
struggled for; they depict the stormy
winds that blow around their ships as one of
the advantages of naval life, and they seldom
become interpretive or sentimental, and are
apt to dwell very little on the special COM
plexion of the 'cause" contended for, which
is always assumed at once as the absolutely
right one. just as the national hymn itself
somewhat coarsely prays God to ''confound
the politics" and Scatter the knavish tricks
of our enemies, English patriotic songs
spend all their force on the joys of battle,
and seldom analyze the virtue of the cause.
French sentiment, again, is wholly different
1t has less immeasurable self-confdence,
and much more bitterness of assault in it
The MarSeiIaiSe, for instance, owes all iti
power to the fury of its indictment against
the enemy. What depth of scornful hatred
there is in the throw-off-
Allons, enfans de la patrie lie jour de glolre es
arrive;
Contre nous de la tyrannie retendard sanglant es
Entendez-vous dams les campagnes mugir ces fero
ces soldats
lis viennent Jusque dams vos bras egorger Vos fills
vos compagnes.
Aux armes, citoyens formez YES batalons
Marchons, marchons! qu'un sang impur abreuy
nos silons!
What loathing there is for the foe in th,
fine imaginative burst
Tout est sOldGt pour cOmbatts; sils tombent no
jeunes heros,
La terre en- prodult de nouVeauX, c0ntre VouS tou
prets q Sc battre!
In French war songs, or patriotic songs
which are usually war songs in disguise-th
keynote is the spirit of assault, the keen in
yective of the popular mind springing at it
enemy. Even in Alfred de Musset's ''Rhil
Allemand" the same characteristic is visible
Becker's German Rhine, to which il wa
an answer, consisted solely of a somewha
wearisome repetition of the assurance tina
the Rhine should never be given up by tn,
Germans $50 long as in Its quiet flow it still
bears its green mantle, $50 long as a singh
oar beats its waters, so long as lofty "dome
are reflected in its bosom, and SO forth, tn
only word of invective against the Frenc
being the expression ''greedy ravens" Raben)
not very happily applied to them i