restrained Auld from openly doing what he thought his ministerial duty." Auld certainly could bite, as the Kirk-Session Records of Mauchline show, for there his language is "pipere mordacior-spicier than pepper."

The same is true in regard to Moody. The Presbytery records support the Poet's insinuation that Moody was a hasty and indiscreet man. For it stands there that on one occasion he was found guilty "of a want of prudence, generosity, and gratitude, and that he should be censured for his conduct and admonished to be better for the future." The incident of "The Twa Herds" is undoubtedly a fact, though whether the quarrel between Moody and Russell went to the extremity of blows is doubtful. But there are other records which show Moody in a different light. They prove that he was a hospitable and genial man, that he was most earnest, evangelical, and full of zeal against the evils of his time. In the diary of a Moravian minister, who frequently travelled the road from Ayr to Glasgow through Riccarton, it is mentioned that Moody always gave him a most hearty welcome at the Manse, and by his life and conversation proved himself to be a sincere minister of the gospel. It is interesting to find that this writer places a higher estimate on Moody's character than on that of Mr Dalrymple of the first charge in Ayr. We are familiar with Burns's verdict of this minister. His heart was like a child," and his life like the new-driven snaw." But Dalrymple could reveal a certain narrowness and bigotry. In the same diary he is represented as announcing that he would preach a sermon against the errors of a certain sect to the satisfaction of all his hearers." But the result was not as he expected, for "it turned out to his hearers' dissatisfaction. I hear that the people are very much displeased with their minister for being so very bitter; he went home from ye pulpit sick, and continues very ill." Evidently the sickness is regarded as a visitation from heaven upon this very worthy minister.

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The portrait of Russell is the most conspicuous of all.

It is that of a strong Calvinist who dangled his hearers continually over

"A vast, unbottom'd, boundless pit,

Filled fou o' lowing brunstane,
Whase raging flame, an' scorching heat,
Wad melt the hardest whunstane !"

And, indeed, "Black" Russell seems to have been very much like his portrait. "His countenance was dark and forbidding, his voice like thunder, his frame coarse and massive. Children fled from him, and the sound of his staff on the street was the signal for the closing of doors." With such a man Burns had no sympathy. They were at opposite poles of thought. But a truer estimate would have done justice to the courage, the conviction, and the force of a character which might have found its place in the roll of "Scots Worthies" of former generations. Russell was a true descendant of the Covenant.

In justice to the Poet we must also say that he could be generous to those who came nearer to his idea of religion. Of M'Gill he writes that he was "one of the worthiest, as well as one of the ablest, of the whole priesthood of the Kirk of Scotland." And we have the authority of Burns for the statement that his father was a great admirer of Dalrymple and of his strain of preaching and benevolent conduct, and that he attended Dalrymple's ministry with diligence and profit.

Burns's relations with the Church were not of the happiest character. It was impossible for so conscientious a minister as Auld to look lightly upon the irregularities of the Poet. And the severity of the punishment administered by this stern "Apostle" may possibly have aggravated the Poet's dislike for the Church as it was then constituted. We hasten to add, however, that Burns had the utmost reverence for all true religion. He caricatured the form which it assumed in the Church, and not the spirit. And the truth for which he contended lay very near to the

heart of the Teacher of Nazareth.

Possibly Burns never

expressed it better than in these words:

"The cleanest corn that e'er was dight

May hae some pyles o' caff in ;

So ne'er a fellow-creature slight

For random fits o' daffin."

With "New Light " or " Old Light the Poet had no concern. He was not interested in theology. vitally alive to all that was human.

He was

For that reason his

voice lives when Russell's is silent, and his verses are remembered when M'Gill's treatise is forgotten. The humble cottar has rendered a greater service to the nation than the august Presbytery of Ayr. He has preached, too, a truer gospel than those who thundered their denunciation from pulpit, "tent," and Session-House.

REV. N. FARQUHAR ORR, B.A.

MISDATES IN BURNS LITERATURE.

The Poet was born Thursday, 25th January, 1759;
Died Thursday, 21st July, 1796,

And was buried Monday, 25th July, 1796.

MANY are the mistakes regarding dates to be found

in editions of the Works of Burns and other volumes relating to the Poet. Currie, in his first edition, 1800 (vol. I., page 58), said: "Robert Burns was born on the 29th day of January, 1759.” He corrected the mistake in his second edition, 1801 (vol. I., page 57), changing the date to the "25th." However, the correction was leaden-footed, and the error seemed to have wings. Indeed, for many years the 29th was popularly celebrated as Burns's natal day. Paisley Burns Club held its Anniversaries of Burns on the 29th of January, year after year, till they discovered their error in 1818. In that year R. A. Smith, who had gone from Paisley to Ayr to open music classes, wrote to a Paisley friend that he had discovered the real birthday of the Bard to have been on the 25th of January. He also mentioned that the 29th was still on the cottage wall where the Poet was born, and likewise on the painting of his likeness kept inside of the house; but it would be altered soon. Smith became acquainted with the Session-Clerk, who had shown him the Register of Births. The following extract was made :

"Robert Burns, lawful son of William Burns in Alloway and Agnes Brown, his spouse, was born on the 25th of January, 1759, and baptised the 26th by the Rev. Dr William Dalrymple.

Witnesses-Jno. Tennant and James Young.'

Extracted from the Register of Births and Baptisms in the Parish of Ayr for the Paisley Burns Club-R. A. Smith being present-at Ayr, this 19th day of August, 1818."

Smith thought Burns was responsible for the error, but we have the evidence of his Autobiographical Song to the contrary:

We have further proof that Burns knew his own birthday on the cover of the Edinburgh Common-place Book, on which he wrote :

"R. Burns was born 25 Jan., 1759.

See this book, pa. 3, note."

The note refers to There was a Birkie born in Kyle," which is the version of the song therein inscribed, and the note reads :

"Jan. 25th, 1759, the date of my Bardship's vital existence."

Scott Douglas omits the note written on the cover in printing the Common-place Book in his Edinburgh Edition, but it is recorded in Macmillan's Magazine for 1879, which first printed this important manuscript.

Possibly the popular mistake was largely due to the fact that many of the editions which followed Currie, ignorant of his correction, repeated the error of his first edition. The following is a list (comprehensive but not complete) of editions of Burns which give the birthday as the