Excerpt from The Universal Songster, or Museum of Mirth, Vol. 1: Forming the Most Complete, Extensive, and Valuable Collection of Ancient and Modern Songs in the English Language; With a Copious and Classified IndexON cor-ulting the most remote history, not only of European nations but those of the wildest regions, under the frigid and the torrid zones, we shall uniformly find, that the vocal chant has at all periods and every where predominated. Religious ceremonies have been accompanied by solemn strains of melody, - the songs of war and of victory are proverbial, and the funereal dirge is sung as the final tribute of devotional love and respect for the manes of a departed spirit. Such we conceive to have been the origin of all Song, which, in remote ages, does not appear to have extended beyond the celebration of such solemn rites. In process of time the epithalamium was performed at nuptial ceremonies, from whence, in all probability, originated the sprightlier amatory and Bacchanalian strains.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.