of which he was unconscious till it was revealed to him by accident. The second time that he appeared in the pulpit, he came with an assured and tranquil mind; and though a few persons of education were present, he advanced some length in the service, with his confidence and self-possession unimpaired. But when he observed Burns, who was of a different parish, unexpectedly enter the church, he was instantly affected with a tremor and embarrassment, which apprized him of the impression his mind, unknown to himself, had previously received." The Professor adds that this preacher was not only a man of good talents and education, but remarkable for a more than ordinary portion of constitutional firmness."

Professor Dugald Stewart has thus recorded the impression made by Burns upon him." 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 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 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."

I now proceed to compare the development of the individual organs with the strength of the corresponding faculties.

Amativeness is well developed. The cerebellum appears to have had considerable latitudinal and longitudinal dimensions; but as it does not seem to have been proportionally deep, I estimate the size of the organ at "rather large." Adhesiveness is superior to it, and is stated as "very large." Ideality also is great. If to all this we add the extreme susceptibility of the poet's brain, we shall have no difficulty in perceiving the source of the strong attachments which he formed, especially to individuals of the other sex,-his enthusiastic admiration of the latter, his ardent patriotism,-and the tenderness and affection embodied in his songs. "Notwithstanding," says he, "all that has been said against love, respecting the folly and weakness it leads a young inexperienced mind into, still I think it in a great measure deserves the highest encomiums that have been passed upon it. If any thing on earth deserves the name of rapture and transport, it is the feelings of green eighteen in the company of the mistress of his heart, when she repays him with an equal

* Life prefixed to Morrison's Burns, p. 45.

return of affection." Gilbert Burns states, that in early youth Robert was bashful and awkward in his intercourse with women, but that" when he approached manhood his attachment to their society became very strong, and he was constantly the victim of some fair enslaver. The symptoms of his passion," adds Gilbert," were often such as nearly to equal those of the celebrated Sappho. I never, indeed, knew that he fainted, sank, and died away; but the agitations of his mind and body exceeded any thing of the kind I ever knew in real life.” **

In conformity with the views of Mr William Scott*, who regards Adhesiveness as "the centre of true affection," and Amativeness as an auxiliary though indispensable element in the passion of love, I conceive that, in the loves of Burns, Adhesiveness was a stronger ingredient than Amativeness-the influence of which also, however, was certainly important. Notwithstanding the licentious tone of some of his early pieces, we are assured by himself (and his brother unhesitatingly confirms the statement), that no positive vice mingled in any of his love adventures until he had reached his twenty-third year. Considerable alteration was produced on his mind and manners by a residence for several months on a smuggling coast, where he mingled without reserve in scenes of riot and dissipation. In 1781-2, he spent six months at Irvine, where, to use the words of Gilbert, "he contracted some acquaintance of a freer manner of living and thinking than he had been used to, whose society prepared him for overleaping the bounds of rigid virtue which had hitherto restrained him." Subsequently to this time, he indulged the propensity with some freedom; but I do not believe that in this respect he differed from young men in general at the same period, and in the same or perhaps any station of life. I have little doubt that Love of Approbation and Secretiveness, which are largely developed, essentially contributed to augment the number of his love adventures, Secretiveness delights in concealment, intrigue, and stolen interviews, and, combined with Individuality, gives tact and savoir faire, Its organ was certainly one of the largest in the brain of Burns, and in love affairs the tendency found abundant gratification. "A country lad," he says, "seldom carries on a love adventure without an assisting confidant. I possessed a curiosity, zeal, and intrepid dexterity, that recommended me as a proper second on these occasions; and I daresay I felt as much pleasure in being in the secret of half the loves of the parish of Tarbolton, as ever did statesman in knowing the intrigues of half the courts of Europe +."

Phren. Journ. vol. iii. p. 82.

+ The consequences of these adventures, says Lockhart, “are far, very far, more frequently quite harmless than persons not familiar with the peculiar manners and feelings of our peasantry may find it easy to believe."-Life,

p. 33.

It may be thought that the grossness of Burns's unpublished correspondence indicates a still greater development of Amativeness than that which appears from the skull. In judging, however, of these letters, and drawing inferences from their language, it is very necessary, as Mr Lockhart acutely remarks, to take into consideration the rank and character of the persons to whom they are severally addressed, and the measure of intimacy which really subsisted between them and the poet. In his letters, as in his conversation, Burns, in spite of all his pride, did something to accommodate himself to his company."-(Lockhart p. 185.) It seems highly probable, that while composing these letters, and also certain of his songs, the poet, instead of giving vent to his actual feelings, rather had his eye upon the roar of laughter and applause expected from the circle of his jovial and licentious acquaintances. Finally, the effects of frequent carousing on the activity of the cerebellum ought to be kept in view.

Philoprogenitiveness is very large, and the poet's affection for his children was proportionally strong. It was Philoprogenitiveness that formed, the chief obstacle to his emigration to America. In one of his letters, after enumerating the various motives by which he was impelled to leave Scotland, he adds, "All these reasons, urge me to go abroad, and to all these reasons I have only one answer the feelings of a father. This, in the present mood I am in, overbalances every thing that can be laid in the scale against it." He dreaded poverty more on account of his wife and children than for his own sake; and the prospect of leaving them destitute gave him many uneasy reflections. "There had much need," he writes to Mrs Dunlop, " be many pleasures annexed to the states of husband and father, for God knows, they have many peculiar cares. I cannot describe to you the anxious sleepless hours these ties frequently give me. I see a train of helpless little folks; me and my exertions all their stay; and on what a brittle thread does the life of man hang! If I am nipt off at the command of fate, even in all the vigour of manhood as I am-such things happen every day-gracious God! what would become of my little flock! 'Tis here that I envy you people of fortune."

The Rev. James Gray, rector of the Dumfries Academy, and afterwards one of the masters in the High School of Edinburgh, states, in a letter to Gilbert Burns, that Robert " was a kind and attentive father, and took great delight in spending his evenings in the cultivation of the minds of his children."-(Lockhart, p. 244.)

The organ of Combativeness is also very large. Burns, along with much Cautiousness, had a strong endowment of courage. In the course of his duty as an exciseman, he on one occasion headed some dragoons, waded sword in hand to a smuggling brig on the shore of Solway Firth, and was the first to board

her. The crew lost heart and submitted, though their numbers were greater than those of the assailing force. (Lockhart, p. 219.). Combativeness was one of the elements in his irritability of temper. It made him also naturally inclined to disputation, and impatient of contradiction. "He was more disposed," says Allan Cunningham, "to contend for victory than to seek for knowledge. The debating club of Tarbolton was ever strong within him; a fierce lampoon, or a rough epigram, was often the reward of those who ventured to contradict him. His conversation partook of the nature of controversy, and he urged his opinions with a vehemence amounting to fierceness. All this was natural enough, when he was involved in argument with the boors around him; but he was disposed, when pressed in debate, to be equally discourteous and unsparing to the polite and the titled." (P. 349.) The conspicuous part which Burns took in the theological warfare between the partizans of the New and Old Light doctrines is well known. This polemical spirit continued with him through life. "When in the company of the demure and the pious, he loved to start doubts in religion, which he knew nothing short of inspiration could solve; and to speak of Calvinism with such latitude of language as shocked or vexed all listeners." (Cunningham, p. 352.) He was likewise a keen politician, wrote electioneering songs, and injured his worldly prospects by too freely giving vent to his sentiments.

Combativeness, when very large, impels its possessor to adopt a line of conduct contrary to that which he may be advised or requested to follow; and with Burns it produced its usual effect. An amusing illustration is mentioned by Mr Lockhart. When riding one dark night near Carron, his companion teased him with noisy exclamations of delight and wonder, whenever an opening in the wood permitted them to see the magnificent glare of the furnaces: "Look, Burns! good Heaven! look! look! what a glorious sight!"-" Sir," said Burns, clapping spurs to his mare, "I would not look, look at your bidding, if it were the mouth of hell."

From the earliest youth, as his brother Gilbert informs us, he was not amenable to counsel; a circumstance which often produced much irritation between him and his father. In childhood he delighted in perusing narratives of martial achievements. "The two first books I ever read in private," he says, "and which gave me more pleasure than any two books I ever read since, were The Life of Hannibal, and The History of Sir William Wallace. Hannibal gave my young ideas such a turn, that I used to strut in raptures up and down after the recruiting drum and bagpipe, and wish myself tall enough to be a soldier; while the story of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice

into my veins, which will boil along there till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest.”

The effects of the large Destructiveness of Burns were very conspicuous. From this, and Self Esteem, arose that vindictive and sarcastic spirit which formed one of his chief failings. In one of his letters, he speaks of the "dirty sparks of malice and envy which are but too apt to invest me ;" and in an unpublished piece, he alludes to the terror excited by

"Burns's venom, when

He dips in gall unmixed his eager pen,

And pours his vengeance in the burning line."

Even those who unwittingly put him to inconvenience sometimes fell under his lash. Having come, during an excursion in Ayrshire, to an inn where he used to lodge, but which he on that occasion found entirely occupied by mourners conveying the body of a lady to a distant place of interment, he gave vent to his spleen in a lampoon full of bitterness:

"Dweller in yon dungeon dark,

Hangman of creation, mark
Who in widowed weeds appears
Laden with unhonoured years.

Note that eye-'tis rheum o'erflows

Pity's flood there never rose:

See those hands, ne'er stretched to save ;
Hands that took, but never gave."

"In these words," says Allan Cunningham, "and others bitterer still, the poet avenged himself on the memory of a frugal and respectable lady, whose body unconsciously deprived him of a night's sleep." (P. 218).

Respecting Burns's Acquisitiveness a few words are necessary. According to his own description, he was "a man who had little art in making money, and still less in keeping it." That his art in making money was sufficiently moderate, there can be no doubt; for he was engaged in occupations which his soul loathed, and thought it below the dignity of genius to accept of pecuniary remuneration for some of his most laborious literary performances. He was, however, by no means insensible to the value of money, and never recklessly threw it away On the contrary, he was remarkably frugal, except when feelings stronger than Acquisitiveness came into play-such as Benevolence, Adhesiveness, and Love of Approbation; the organs of all of which are very large, while Acquisitiveness is only rather large. During his residence at Mossgiel, where his annual revenue was not more than L.7, his expenses, as Gilbert mentions, never, in any one year, exceeded his slender income." It is well known also, that he did not leave behind him a shilling of debt; and I have learned from good authority, that his household was much more frugally managed at Dumfries than at Ellisland,

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