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morals and politics of any age—than the details of a battle. Poetry is not indeed a very convenient instrument for historical narration. Its imaginativens and its passions little suit the sobriety of the chronicler. It has always some purpose to serve of pride or pleasure. Its materials, if not poetical, must be made so, and truth be abandoned wherever it interferes with that excitement which it is the first end of the poet to create. But if the authority of song in positive and specific facts must be looked on with distrust, and examined with scrupulous care, it is not the less an admirable mirror to show
"The very age and body of the time,
"Its form and pressure,"
and I cannot but think that it might be made far more subservient than it has been made, to the elucidation of history.
The bohemians have great masses of popular songs. Scarcely is a new air introduced ere a number of words are found to suit it. Čelakowsky mentions having been present among an assembly of peasants, when a young girl started a verse—
