his writings. Among the poets whom I have happened to know, I have been struck, in more than one instance, with the unaccountable disparity between their general talents, and the occasional inspirations of their more favoured moments. But all the faculties of Burns's mind were, as far as I could judge, equally vigorous; and his predilection for poetry was rather the result of his own enthusiastic and impassioned temper, than of a genius exclusively adapted to that species of composition. From his conversation I should have pronounced him to be fitted to excel in whatever walk of ambition he had chosen to exert his abilities. "Among the subjects on which he was accustomed to dwell, the characters of the individuals with whom he happened to meet was plainly a favourite one. The remarks he made on them were always shrewd and pointed, though frequently inclining too much to sarcasm. His praise of those he loved was sometimes indiscriminate and extravagant; but this, I suspect. proceeded rather from the caprice and humour of the moment, than from the effects of attachment in blinding his judgment. His wit was ready, and always impressed with the marks of a vigorous understanding; but, to my taste, not often pleasing or happy. His attempts at epigram, in his printed works, are the only performances, perhaps, that he has produced, totally unworthy of his genius. read with unmixed delight, notwithstanding his former efforts in that very difficult species of writing; and I have little doubt that it had some effect in polishing his subsequent compositions. "In judging of prose, I do not think his taste was equally sound. I once read to him a passage or two in Franklin's works, which I thought very happily executed, upon the model of Addison: but he did not appear to relish, or to perceive, the beauty which they derived from their exquisite simplicity, and spoke of them with indifference when compared with the point, and antithesis, and quaintness of "Junius." The influence of this taste is very perceptible in his own prose compositions, although their great and various excellencies render some of them scarcely less objects of wonder than his poetical performances. The late Dr. Robertson used to say, that considering his education, the latter seemed to him the more extraordinary of the two. "His memory was uncommonly retentive, at least for poetry, of which he recited to me frequently long compositions with the most minute accuracy. They were chiefly ballads, and other pieces in our Scottish dialect: great part of them (he told me) he had learned in his childhood, from his mother, who delighted in such recitations, and whose poetical taste, rede as it probably was, gave, it is presumable, the first direction of her son's genius. In summer, 1787. I passed some weeks in "Of the more polished verses which accidenAyrshire, and saw Burns occasionally I think tally fell into his hands in his early years, he that he made a pretty long excursion that sea- mentioned particularly the recommendatory son to the Highlands, and that he also visited poems, by different authors, prefixed to Herwhat Beattie calls the Arcadian ground of Scot-vey's Meditations; a book which has always land, upon the banks of the Teviot and the Tweed. "I should have mentioned before. that notwithstanding various reports I heard during the preceding winter, of Burns's predilection for convivial, and not very select soc ety, I should have concluded in favour of his habits of sobriety, from all of him that ever fell under my own observation. He told me indeed himself, that the weakness of his stomach was such as to deprive him entirely of any merit in his temperance. I was however somewhat alarmed about the effect of his now comparatively sedentary and luxurious life, when he confessed to me, the first night he spent in my house after his winter's campaign in town, that he had been much disturbed when in bed, by a palpitation at his heart, which, he said, was a complaint to which he had of late become subject. "In the course of the same season I was led by curiosity to attend for an hour or two a Masonic Lodge in Mauchline, where Burns presided. He had occasion to make short, unpremeditated compliments to different individuals from whom he had no reason to expect a visit, and everything he said was happily conceived, and forcibly as well as fluently expressed. If I am not mistaken, he told me, that in that village, before going to Edinburgh, he had belonged to a small club of such of the inhabitants as had a taste for books, when they used to converse and debate on any interesting questions that occurred to them in the course of their reading. His manner of speaking in public had evidently the marks of some practice in extempore clocu tion. "I must not omit to mention, what I have always considered as characteristical in a high degree of true genius, the extreme facility and good nature of his taste, in judging of the compositions of others, when there was any real grounds for praise. I repeated to him many passages of English poetry with which he was unacquainted, and have more than once witnessed the tears of admiration and rapture with which he heard them. The collection of songs by Dr. Aiken, which I first put into his hands, he had a very wide circulation among such of the country people of Scotland, as affect to unite some degree of taste with their religious studies. And these poems (although they are certainly below mediocrity) he continued to read with a degree of rapture beyond expression. He took notice of this fact himself, as a proof how much the taste is liable to be influenced by accidental circumstances. "His father appeared to me, from the account he gave of him, to have been a respectable and worthy character, possessed of a mind superior to what might have been expected from his station in life. He ascribed much of his own principles and feelings to the early impressions he had received from his instructions and example. I recollect that he once applied to him (and he added, that the passage was a literal statement of fact), the two last lines of the following passage in the Minstrel,' the whole of which he repeated with great enthusiasm:-"Shall I be left forgotten in the dust, When fate relenting, lets the flower revive; Is it for this fair Virtue oft must strive This truth sublime, his simple sire had taught: "With respect to Burns's early education, I cannot say anything with certainty. He always spoke with respect and gratitude of the schoolmaster who had taught him to read English: and who, finding in his scholar a more than ordinary ardour for knowledge, had been at pains to instruct him in the grammatical principles of the language. He began the study of Latin, but dropped it before he had finished the verbs I have sometimes heard him quote a few Latin words, such as omnia vincit amor, &c., but they seemed to be such as he had caught from conversation, and which he repeated by rote. I think he had a project after he came to Edinburgh, of prosecuting the study under his intimate friend, the late Mr. Nicol, one of the masters of the grammar-school here; but I do not know if he ever proceeded so far as to make the attempt. "He certainly possessed a smattering of French; and, if he had an affectation in anything, it was in introducing occasionally a word or a phrase from that language. It is possible that his knowledge in this respect might be more extensive than I suppose it to be; but that you can learn from his more intimate acquaintance. It would be worth while to inquire, whether he was able to read the French authors with such facility as to receive from them any improveinent to his taste. For my own part, I doubt it much-nor would I believe it, but on very strong and pointed evidence. "If my memory does not fail me, he was well instructed in arithmetic, and knew something of practical geometry, particularly of surveying. -All his other attainments were entirely his own. "The last time I saw him was during the winter, 1788-89; when he passed an evening with me at Drunsheugh, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where I was then living. My friend Mr. Alison was the only other in company. I never saw him more agreeable or interesting. A present which Mr. Alison sent him afterwards of his Essays on Taste,' drew from Burns a letter of acknowledgment, which I remember to have read with some degree of surprise at the distinct conception he appeared from it to have formed, of the several principles of the doctrine of association. When I saw Mr. Alison in Shropshire last autumn, I forget to inquire if the letter be still in existence. If it is, you may easily procure it, by megns of our friend Mr. Houlbrooke." dress to Edinburgh," she is celebrated in a strain of still greater elevation: "Fair Burnet strikes th' adoring eye, Heaven's beauties on my fancy shine; I see the Sire of Love on high, And own his works indeed divine!" This lovely woman died a few years afterwards in the flower of her youth. Our bard expressed his sensibility on that occasion, in verses addressed to her memory. Among the men of rank and fashion, Burns was particularly distinguished by James, Earl of Glencairn. On the motion of this nobleman, the Caledonian Hunt, (an association of the principal of the nobility and gentry of Scotland,) extended their patronage to our bard, and admitted him to their gay orgies. He repaid their notice by a dedication of the enlarged and improved edition of his poems, in which he has celebrated their patriotism and independence in very animated terms. * * "I congratulate my country that the blood of her ancient heroes runs uncontaminated; and that, from your courage, knowledge, and public spirit, she may expect protection, wealth, and liberty. * May corruption shrink at your kindling indignant glance; and may tyranny in the ruler, and licentiousness in the people, equally find in you an inexorable foe !" It is to be presumed that these generous sentiments, uttered at an era singularly propitious to independence of character and conduct, were favourably received by the persons to whom they were addressed, and that they were echoed from every bosom, as well as from that of the Earl of Glencairn. This accomplished nobleman, a scholar, a man of taste and sensibility, died soon afterwards. Had he lived, and had his power equalled his wishes, Scotland might still have exulted in the genius, instead of lamenting the early fate, of her favourite bard. A taste for letters is not always conjoined with habits of temperance and regularity; and Edinburgh, at the period of which we speak, contained perhaps an uncommon proportion of men of considerable talents, devoted to social excesses, in which their talents were wasted and debased. Burns entered into several parties of this description, with the usual vehemence of his character. His generous affections, his ardent eloquence, his brilliant and daring imagination, fitted him to be the idol of such associations; and accustomed himself to conversation of unlimited range, and to festive indulgences that scorned restraint, he gradually lost some portion of his relish for the more pure, but less poignant, pleasures, to be found in the circles of taste, elegance, and literature. The sudden alteration in his habits of life operated on him physically as well as morally. The humble fare of an Ayrshire peasant he had exchanged for the luxuries of the Scottish metropolis, and the effects of this change on his ardent constitution could not be inconsiderable. But whatever influence might be produced on his conduct, his excellent understanding suffered no correspendent debasement. He estimated his friends and associates of every description at their proper value, and appreciated his own conduct with a precision that might give scope to much curious and melancholy reflection. He saw his danger, and at times formed resolutions to guard against it; but he had embarked on the tide of dissipation, and was borne along its stream. The scene that opened on our bard in Edinburgh was altogether new, and in a variety of other respects highly interesting, especially to one of his disposition of mind. To use an expression of his own, he found himself "suddenly translated from the veriest shades of life," into the presence, and, indeed, into the society, of a number of persons, previously known to him by report as of the highest distinction in his country, and whose characters it was natural for him to examine with no common curiosity. From the men of letters, in general, his reception was particularly flattering. The late Dr. Blair, Dr. Gregory, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Mackenzie, and Mr. Fraser Tytler, may be mentioned in the list of those who perceived his uncommon talents, who acknowledged more especially his power in conversation, and who interested themselves in the cultivation of his genius. In Edinburgh, literary and fashionable society are a good deal mixed. Our bard was an acceptable guest in the gayest and most elevated circles, and frequently received from female beauty and elegance those attentions above all others most grateful to him. At the table of Lord Monboddo, he was a frequent guest; and while he enjoyed the society, and partook of the hospitalities of the venerable judge, he experienced the kindness and condescension of his loving and accomplished daughter. The singular beauty of this young lady was illumined by that happy expression of countenance which results from the union of cultivated taste and superior understanding, with the finest affections of the mind. Of the state of his mind at this time, an auThe influence of such attraction was not unfelt thentic, though imperfect, document remains in by our poet. "There has not been anything like a book which he procured in the spring of 1787, Miss Burnet," said he, in a letter to a friend, "in for the purpose, as he himself informs us, of reall the combinations of beauty, grace, and good-cording in it whatever seemed worthy of obserness, the Creator has formed, since Milton's Eve vation. The following extracts may serve as a on the first day of her existence." In his "Ad- specimen. "Edinburgh, April 9, 1787. "As I have seen a good deal of human life in Edinburgh, a great many characters which are new to one bred up in the shades of life as I have been, I am determined to take down my remarks on the spot. Gray observes, in a letter to Mr. Palgrave, that half a word fixed upon, or near the spot, is worth a cart-load of recollection.' I don't know how it is with the world in general, but with me, making my remarks is by no means a solitary pleasure. I want some one to laugh with me, some one to be grave with me, some one to please me, and help my discrimination, with his or her own remark, and, at times, no doubt, to admire my acuteness and penetration. The world are so busied with selfish pursuits, ambition, and vanity, interest, or pleasure, that very few think it worth their while to make any observation on what passes around them, except where that observation is a sucker, or branch of the darling plant they are rearing in their fancy. Now I am sure, notwithstanding all the sentimental flights of novel-writers, and the sage philosophy of moralists, whether we are capable of so intimate and cordial a coalition of friendship, as that one man may pour out his bosom, his every thought and floating fancy, his very inmost soul, with unreserved confidence to another, without hazard of losing part of that respect which man deserves from man; or from the unavoidable imperfections attending human nature, of one day repenting his confidence. "For these reasons I am determined to make these pages my confident. I will sketch every character that any way strikes me, to the best of my power, with unshrinking justice. I will insert anecdotes, and take down remarks, in the old law phrase, without feud or favour.'-Where I hit on anything clever, my own applause will, in some measure, feast my vanity; and begging Patroclus' and Achates' pardon, I think a lock and key a security, at least equal to the bosom of any friend whatever. "My own private story likewise, my love-adventures, my rambles; the frowns and smiles of fortune on my bardship; my poems and fragments, that must never see the light, shall be Occasionally inserted.-In short, never did four shillings purchase so much friendship since confidence went first to market, or honesty was set up for sale. To these seemingly invidious, but too just ideas of human friendship, I would cheerfully make one exemption-the connexion between two persons of different sexes, when their interests are united and absorbed by the tie of love "When thought meets thought, ere from the lips And each warm wish springs mutual from the it part, heart. "There are few of the sore evils under the sun give me more uneasiness and chagrin than the comparison how a man of genius, nay, of avowed worth, is received everywhere, with the reception which a mere ordinary character, decorated with the trapping and futile distinctions of fortune, meets. I imagine a man of abilities, his breast glowing with honest pride, conscious that men are all born equal, still giving 'honour to whom honour is due;' he meets at a great man's table, a Squire something, or a Sir somebody; he knows the noble landlord, at heart, gives the bard, or whatever he is, a share of his good wishes, beyond, perhaps, any one at table; yet how will it mortify him to see a fellow, whose abilities would scarcely have made an eighteenpenny tailor, and whose heart is not worth three farthings, meet with attention and notice, that are withheld from the son of genius and poverty? The noble G has wounded me to the soul here, because I dearly esteem, respect, and love him. He showed me so much attentionengrossing attention, one day, to the only blockhead at table (the whole company consisted of his lordship, dunderpate, and myself), that I was within half a point of throwing down my gage of contemptuous defiance; but he shook my hand, and looked so benevolently good at parting. God bless him, though I should never see him more, I shall love him until my dying day! I am pleased to think I am so capable of the throes of gratitude, as I am miserably deficient in some other virtues. "With I am more at my ease. Inever respect him with humble veneration; but when he kindly interests himself in my welfare, or still more when he descends from his pinnacle, and meets me on equal ground in conversation, my heart overflows with what is called liking. When he neglects me for the mere carcass of greatness, or when his eye measures the difference of our points of elevation, I say to myself, what do I care for him, or his pomp either?" * * * * The intentions of the poet in procuring this book, so fully described by himself, were very imperfectly executed. He has inserted into it a few or no incidents, but several observations and reflections, of which the greater part that are proper for the public eye, will be found interwoven in the volume of his letters. The most curious particulars in the book are the delineation of the characters he met with. These are not numerous; but they are chiefly of persons of distinction in the republic of letters, and nothing but the delicacy and respect due to living characters prevents us from committing them to the press. Though it appears that in his conversation he was sometimes disposed to sarcastic remarks on the men with whom he lived, nothing of this kind is discoverable in these more deliberate efforts of his understanding, which, while they exhibit great elearness of discrimination, manifest also the wish, as well as the power, to bestow high and generous praise. By the new edition of his poems, Burns acquired a sum of money that enabled him, not only to partake of the pleasure. of Edinburgh, but to gratify a desire he had long entertained, of visiting those parts of his native country, most attractive by their beauty or their grandeur; a desire which the return of summer naturally revived. The scenery on the banks of the Tweed, and of its tributary streams, strongly interested his fancy; and, accordingly, he left Edinburgh on the 6th of May, 1787, on a tour through a country so much celebrated in the rural songs of Scotland. He travelled on horseback, and was accompanied, during some part of his journey, by Mr. Ainslie, now writer to the signet, a gentleman who enjoyed much of his friendship and of his confidence. Of this tour a journal remains, which, however, contains only occasional remarks on the scenery, and which is chiefly occupied with an account of the author's different stages, and with his observations on the various characters to whom he was introduced. In the course of this tour, he visited Mr. Ainslie of Berrywell, the father of his companion; Mr. Drydone, the celebrated traveller, to whom he carried a letter of introduction from Mr. Mackenzie; the Rev. Dr. Somerville of Jedburgh, the historian; Mr. and Mrs. Scott of Wau |