One fault only has been attributed to the manners of Burns at this period, and it remained with him to the last. He was apt to pronounce more decisively than is consistent with politeness. The gravity of a fault which prevents others from easily expressing a contrary opinion, and thus puts an awkward restraint upon a company, may be readily admitted. But surely some allowance is called for in favour of one who, whatever his native endowments, had never been in circumstances to acquire that training which makes deference in the well-bred gentleman something like a second nature. Forming his ideas with equal promptitude and clearness, he was exactly the kind of man to utter them with little hesitation as to collateral considerations of expediency. Then Burns had an honest contempt for whatever bore the appearance of meanness and servility. To assert his own exemption from the faults most apt to beset a person in his situation, he was too ready to fall into the opposite error of a hardness of manner towards persons presumedly his superiors, and who were not of the set who won his affections by their unpretending kindness. The greatest breach of decorum which he is known to have committed in Edinburgh society is one recorded by Mr Cromek. It has been several times brought forward as characteristic of Burns at this period; in which we think there is about as much justice as there would be in describing some worthy person as of a bad temper because he once fell into a passion :—' At a private breakfast party, in a literary circle of Edinburgh, the conversation turned on the poetical merit and pathos of Gray's Elegy, a poem of which he was enthusiastically fond. A clergyman present, remarkable for his love of paradox and for his eccentric notions upon every subject, distinguished himself by an injudicious and ill-timed attack on this exquisite poem, which Burns, with generous warmth for the reputation of Gray, manfully defended. As the gentleman's remarks were rather general than specific, Burns urged him to bring forward the passages which he thought exceptionable. He made several attempts to quote the poem, but always in a blundering, inaccurate manner. Burns bore all this for a good while with his usual good-natured forbearance, till at length, goaded by the fastidious criticisms and wretched quibblings of his opponent, he roused himself, and, with an eye flashing contempt and indignation, and with great vehemence of gesticulation, he thus addressed the cold critic: "Sir, I now perceive a man may be an excellent judge of poetry by square and rule, and after all be a d-blockhead!" Such an outburst might happen to a man of warm and sensitive nature by surprise; but that is a totally different thing from a habit of outraging propriety in conversation. Amongst those who have reported on the aspects of Burns's PROFESSOR STEWART'E ACCOUNT OF BURNS. 63 persons, mind and demeanour at this crisis, a prominent place is due to Professor Stewart, who had had the advantage of seeing him ere he emerged or hoped to emerge from the shades of life. The learned professor addresses Dr Currie:-"The attentions he received during his stay in town from all ranks and descriptions of were such as would have turned any head but his own. I cannot say that I could perceive any unfavourable effect which they left on his mind. He retained the same simplicity of manners and appearance which had struck me so forcibly when I first saw him in the country; nor did he seem to feel any additional self-importance from the number and rank of his new acquaintance. His dress was perfectly suited to his station, plain and unpretending, with a sufficient attention to neatness. 'The variety of his engagements, while in Edinburgh, prevented me from seeing him so often as I could have wished. In the course of the spring he called on me once or twice, at my request, early in the morning, and walked with me to Braid Hills, in the neighbourhood of the town, when he charmed me still more by his private conversation than he had ever done in company. He was passionately fond of the beauties of nature; and I recollect once he told me, when I was admiring a distant prospect in one of our morning walks, that the sight of so many smoking cottages gave a pleasure to his mind, which none could understand who had not witnessed, like himself, the happiness and the worth which they contained. 'In his political principles he was then a Jacobite; which was perhaps owing partly to this, that his father was originally from the estate of Lord Mareschal. Indeed he did not appear to have thought much on such subjects, nor very consistently. He had a very strong sense of religion, and expressed deep regret at the levity with which he had heard it treated occasionally in some convivial meetings which he frequented. I speak of him as he was in the winter of 1786–7; for afterwards we met but seldom, and our conversations turned chiefly on his literary projects or his private affairs. 'I do not recollect whether it appears or not from any of your letters to me that you had ever seen Burns. If you have, it is superfluous for me to add, that the idea which his conversation conveyed of the powers of his mind, exceeded, if possible, that which is suggested by 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 1 Dr Currie had met with Burns. 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.' Walter Scott was at this time a boy of sixteen; but, though condemned to task-work in his father's office, he already possessed the taste and feelings which would have enabled him to appreciate the society of Burns. He had read his poetry, and he ardently desired to see the poet. An opportunity was at length furnished when Burns came to the house of Dr Adam Ferguson, whose eldest son (now Sir Adam Ferguson) was Scott's intimate friend and companion. The unaffected description of the meeting which Scott afterwards communicated to Mr Lockhart is deeply interesting:-'Of course,' says he, we youngsters sat silent, looked, and listened. The only thing I remember which was remarkable in Burns's manner, was the effect produced upon him by a print of Bunbury's, representing a soldier lying dead on the snow, his dog sitting in misery on one side-on the other his widow, with a child in her arms. These lines were written underneath : 6 "Cold on Canadian hills, or Minden's plain, Burns seemed much affected by the print, or rather the ideas which it suggested to his mind. He actually shed tears. He asked whose the lines were, and it chanced that nobody but myself remembered that they occur in a half-forgotten poem of Langhorne's, called by the unpromising title of the "Justice of SCOTT'S INTERVIEW WITH BURNS. 65 Peace." I whispered my information to a friend present, who mentioned it to Burns, who rewarded me with a look and a word which, though in mere civility, I then received, and still recollect, with great pleasure. His person was strong and robust; his manners rustic, not clownish; a sort of dignified plainness and simplicity, which received part of its effect perhaps from one's knowledge of his extraordinary talents. His features are represented in Mr Nasmyth's picture; but to me it conveys the idea that they are diminished, as if seen in perspective. I think his countenance was more massive than it looks in any of the portraits. I would have taken the poet, had I not known what he was, for a very sagacious country farmer of the old Scotch school; that is, none of your modern agriculturists, who keep labourers for their drudgery, but the douce guidman who held his own plough. There was a strong expression of sense and shrewdness in all his lineaments: the eye alone, I think, indicated the poetical character and temperament. It was large, and of a cast which glowed (I say literally glowed) when he spoke with feeling or interest. I never saw such another eye in a human head, though I have seen the most distinguished men of my time. His conversation ex Langhorne wrote The Country Justice, a poem in three parts, at the request of Richard Burn, Esq., the well-known author of a work on the duties of a justice-ofpeace. The dedication to Mr Burn is dated 1774. Amidst much commonplace, and many stupid political remarks, occurs this passage, reminding us much, in some parts, of the manner of Campbell : 'Be this, ye rural magistrates, your plan *** pressed perfect self-confidence, without the slightest presumption. Among the men who were the most learned of their time and country, he expressed himself with perfect firmness, but without the least intrusive forwardness; and when he differed in opinion, he did not hesitate to express it firmly, yet at the same time with modesty. I have only to add, that his dress corresponded with his manner. He was like a farmer dressed in his best to dine with the laird. I do not speak in malam partem, when I say I never saw a man in company with his superiors in station and information more perfectly free from either the reality or the affectation of embarrassment. I was told, but did not observe it, that his address to females was extremely deferential, and always with a turn either to the pathetic or humorous, which engaged their attention particularly. I have heard the Duchess of Gordon remark this.' Sir Adam Ferguson favours me with some particulars of the visit of Burns to his father's house on this occasion. It was the custom of Dr Ferguson to have a conversazione at his house in the Sheens once a week for his principal literary friends. Professor Stewart on this occasion offered to bring Burns, a proposal to which Dr Ferguson readily assented. The poet found himself amongst the most brilliant literary society which Edinburgh then afforded. Sir Adam thinks that Black, Hutton, and John Home were amongst those present. He had himself brought his young friend Walter Scott, as yet unnoted by his seniors. Burns seemed at first little inclined to mingle easily in the company; he went about the room, looking at the pictures on the walls. The print described by Scott arrested his attention; he read aloud the lines underneath, but before getting to the end of them his voice faltered, and his big black eye filled with tears. A little after, he turned with much interest to the company, pointed to the picture, and with some eagerness asked if any one could tell him who had written those affecting lines. The philosophers were silent; no one knew: but, after a decent interval, the pale lame boy near by said in a negligent manner, 'They're written by one Langhorne.' An explanation of the place where they occur followed, and Burns fixed a look of halfserious interest on the youth, while he said, 'You'll be a man yet, sir.' Scott may be said to have derived literary ordination from Burns.1 1 Scott relates elsewhere, that the house of Dr Ferguson, while he continued to reside in Edinburgh, was a general point of reunion among his friends, particularly of a Sunday, where there generally met, at a hospitable dinner-party, the most distinguished literati of the old time who still remained, with such young persons as were thought worthy to approach their circle, and listen to their conversation. The place of his residence was an insulated house at some distance |