traditional lore "by heart," a probation of from nine to twenty years had to be served to the Druid priesthood, of whom the bards were a branch. The Spartans, it will be remembered, disdaining writing, preserved their laws for centuries by a similar method. The objection upon the score of memory may therefore very fairly be considered disposed of.
The unsettled state of the Highlands, which Dr. Johnson urged as an additional hindrance to the authentic preservation of oral traditions for long periods, possesses even less force at the present day as an argument. The survival of the unwritten Iliad and Odyssey through the troubles of early Greece might be matter for equal scepticism. Rather were these lonely and secluded glens, inaccessible to enemies, and the home of an unmixed race, proud of its antiquity, the most likely places for such traditions to be preserved. It would be an interesting study, indeed, to discover how much of the world's romance has come out of mountainous countries. In flat and peaceful lands life is easy and eventless and commonplace. The art of Holland deals largely with eating and drinking. But among the hills men dwell alone with nature. The plunging roar of the torrent, valley answering valley with the reverberations of the thunder, the mountains
