While all the venal tribes decay, That bask in flattery's flaunting rayThe noisome vermin of a day, Thy works shall gain O'er every mind a boundless sway, A lasting reign. When winter binds the harden'd plains, Around each hearth, the hoary swains Still teach the rising youth thy strains; And anxious say, Our blessing with our sons remains, No. III. (First inserted in the Second Edition.) THE editor has particular pleasure in presenting to the public the following letter, to the due understanding of which a few previous observations are necessary. The Biographer of Burns was naturally desirous of hearing the opinion of the friend and brother of the poet, on the manner in which he had executed his task, before a second edition should be committed to the press. He had the satisfaction of receiving this opinion, in a letter dated the 24th of August, approving of the Life in very obliging terms, and offering one or two trivial corrections as to names and dates chiefly, which are made in this edition. One or two observations were offered of a different kind. In the 319th page of the first volume, first edition, a quotation is made from the pastoral song, Ettrick Banks, and an explanation given of the phrase "mony feck," which occurs in this quotation. Supposing the sense to be complete after "mony," the editor had considered "feck" a rustic oath which confirmed the assertion. The words were therefore separated by a comma. Mr. Burns considered this an error. "Feck," he presumes, is the Scottish word for quantity, and "mony feck," to mean simply, very many. The editor in yielding to this authority, expressed some hesitation, and hinted that the phrase "mony feck" was, in Burns's sense, a pleonasm or barbarism which deformed this beautiful song.* * The correction made by Gilbert Burns has also been suggested by a writer in the Monthly Magazine, under the signature of Albion: who, for taking this trouble, and for mentioning the author of the poem of Donnocht-head deserves the Editor's thanks. His reply to this observation makes the ply as follows;*-When my father built first clause of the following letter. his "clay biggin," he put in two stonejambs, as they are called, and a lintel, carrying up a chimney in his clay gable. The consequence was, that as the gable subsided, the jambs, remaining firm, threw it off its centre; and, one very In the same communication he informed me, that the Mirror and the Lounger were proposed by him to the Conversation Club of Mauchline, and that he had thoughts of giving me his sentiments on the re-stormy morning, when my brother was marks I had made respecting the fitness nine or ten years old, a little before dayof such works for such societies. The light a part of the gable fell out, and the observations of such a man on such a sub-rest appeared so shattered, that my moject, the Editor conceived, would be re- ther with the young poet, had to be carceived with particular interest by the ried through the storm to a neighbour's public; and, having pressed earnestly for house, where they remained a week till them, they will be found in the following their own dwelling was adjusted. That letter. Of the value of this communica- you may not think too meanly of this tion, delicacy towards his very respecta- house, or my father's taste in building, ble correspondent prevents him from ex- by supposing the poet's description in The pressing his opinion. The original let- Vision (which is entirely a fancy picture) ter is in the hands of Messrs. Caddell and applicable to it, allow me to take notice Davies. to you, that the house consisted of a kitchen in one end, and a room in the other, Dinning, Dumfries-shire, 24th Oct. 1800. with a fire place and chimney; that my DEAR SIR, at father had constructed a concealed bed in the kitchen, with a small closet at the YOURS of the 17th inst. came to my end, of the same materials with the house; hand yesterday, and I sit down this after- and, when altogether cast over, outside noon to write you in return: but when I and in, with lime, it had a neat comfortashall be able to finish all I wish to say to ble appearance, such as no family of the you, I cannot tell. I am sorry your consame rank, in the present improved style viction is not complete respecting feck. of living, would think themselves ill-lodgThere is no doubt, that if you take two ed in. I wish likewise to take notice, in English words which appear synonymous passing, that although the "Cotter," in to mony feck, and judge by the rules of the Saturday Night, is an exact copy of English construction, it will appear a bar-my father in his manners, his family-debarism. I believe if you take this mode votion, and exhortations, yet the other of translating from any language, the ef- parts of the description do not apply to fect will frequently be the same. But if our family. None of us were ever you take the expression mony feck to service out amang the neebors roun." Inhave, as I have stated it, the same meanstead of our depositing our "sairwon penin with the English expression very many boured hard, and lived with the most riny fee" with our parents, my father la(and such license every translator must be allowed, especially when he translates gid economy, that he might be able to from a simple dialect which has never keep his children at home, thereby havbeen subjected to rule, and where the ing an opportunity of watching the proprecise meaning of words is of conse-gress of our young minds and forming in quence, not minutely attended to,) it will them earlier habits of piety and virtue; be well enough. One thing I am certain and from this motive alone did he engage of, that ours is the sense universally un-in farming, the source of all his difficulderstood in the country; and I believe no ties and distresses. Scotsman, who has lived contented at home, pleased with the simple manners, the simple melodies, and the simple dialect of his native country, unvitiated by foreign intercourse, "whose soul proud science never taught to stray," ever discovered barbarism in the song of Ettrick Banks. The story you have heard of the gable of my father's house falling down, is sim When I threatened you in my last with a long letter on the subject of the books I recommended to the Mauchline club, and the effects of refinement of taste on the labouring classes of men, I meant merely, that I wished to write you on that subject with the view that, in some | them, will still be considered by men of * future communication to the public, you might take up the subject more at large; that, by means of your happy manner of writing, the attention of people of power and influence might be fixed on it. I had little expectation, however, that I should evercome my indolence, and the difficulty of arranging my thoughts so far as to put my threat in execution; till some time ago, before I had finished my harvest, having a call from Mr. Ewart, with a message from you, pressing me to the performance of this task, I thought myself no longer at liberty to decline it, and resolved to set about it with my first leisure. I will now therefore endeavour to lay before you what has occurred to my mind, on a subject where people capable of observation and of placing their remarks in a proper point of view, have seldom an opportunity of making their remarks on real life. In doing this, I may perhaps be led sometimes to write more in the manner of a person communicating information to you which you did not know before, and at other times more in the style of egotism, than I would choose to do to any person, in whose candour, and even personal good will, I had less confidence. There are two several lines of study that open to every man as he enters life: the one, the general science of life, of duty, and of happiness; the other, the particular arts of his employment or situation in society, and the several branches of knowledge therewith connected. This last is certainly indispensable, as nothing can be more disgraceful than ignorance in the way of one's own profession; and whatever a man's speculative knowledge may be, if he is ill-informed there, he can neither be a useful nor a respectable member of society. It is nevertheless true, that "the proper study of mankind is man:" to consider what duties are incumbent on him as a rational creature, and a member of society; how he may increase or secure his happiness: and how he may prevent or soften the many miseries incident to human life. I think the pursuit of happiness is too frequently confined to the endeavour after the acquisition of wealth. I do not wish to be considered as an idle declaimer against riches, which, after all that can be said against common sense as objects of importance; and poverty will be felt as a sore evil, after all the fine things that can be said of its advantages; on the contrary I am of opinion, that a great proportion of the miseries of life arise from the want of economy, and a prudent attention to money, or the ill-directed or intemperate pursuit of it. But however valuable riches may be as the means of comfort, independence, and the pleasure of doing good to others, yet I am of opinion, that they may be, and frequently are, purchased at too great a cost, and that sacrifices are made in the pursuit, which the acquisition cannot compensate. I remember hearing my worthy teacher, Mr. Murdoch, relate an anecdote to my father, which I think sets this matter in a strong light, and pe:haps was the origin, or at least tended to promote this way of thinking in me. When Mr. Murdoch left Alloway, he went to teach and reside in the family of an opulent farmer who had a number of sons. A neighbour coming on a visit, in the course of conversation, asked the father how he meant to dispose of his sons. The father replied that he had not determined. The visitor said, that were he in his place he would give them all good education and send them abroad, without (perhaps) having a precise idea where. The father objected, that many young men lost their health in foreign countries, and many their lives. True, replied the visitor, but as you have a nuniber of sons, it will be strange if some one of them does not live and make a fortune. Let any person who has the feelings of a father, comment on this story; but though few will avow, even to themselves that such views govern their conduct, yet do we not daily see people shipping off their sons (and who would do so by their daughters also, if there were any demand for them,) that they may be rich or perish? The education of the lower classes is seldom considered in any other point of view than as the means of raising them from that station to which they were born, and of making a fortune. I am ignorant of the mysteries of the art of acquiring a fortune without any thing to begin with; and cannot calculate, with any degree of exactness, the difficulties to be surmounted, the mortifications to be suffered, and the degradation of character to be sub. mitted to, in lending one's self to be the minister of other people's vices, or in the practice of rapine, fraud, oppression, or dissimulation, in the progress; but even when the wished for end is attained, it may be buestioned whether happiness be much increased by the change. When I have een a fortunate adventurer of the lower ranks of life returned from the East or West Indies, with all the hauteur of a vulgar mind accustomed to be served by slaves, assuming a character which, from the ear y habits of life, he is ill-fitted to support displaying magnificence which raises the envy of some, and the contempt of others, claiming an equality with the great, which they are unwilling to allow; inly pining at the precedence of the hereditary gentry; maddened by the polished insolence of some of the unworthy part of them; seeking pleasure in the society of men who can condescend to flatter him, and listen to his absurdity for the sake of a good dinner and good wine: I cannot avoid concluding, that his brother, or companion, who, by a diligent application to the labours of agriculture, or some useful mechanic employment, and the careful husbanding of his gains, has acquired a competence in his station, is a much happier, and, in the eye of a person who can take an enlarged view of mankind, a much more respectable man. But the votaries of wealth may be considered as a great number of candidates striving for a few prizes: and whatever addition the successful may make to their pleasure or happiness, the disappointed will always have more to suffer, I am afraid, than those who abide contented in the station to which they were born. I wish, therefore, the education of the lower classes to be promoted and directed to their improvement as men, as the means of increasing their virtue, and opening to them new and dignified sources of pleasure and happiness. I have heard some people object to the education of the lower classes of men, as rendering them less useful, by abstracting them from their proper business; others, as tending to make them saucy to their superiors, impatient of their condition, and turbulent subjects; while you, with more humanity, have your fears alarmed, lest the delicacy of mind, induced by that sort of education and reading I recommend, should render the evils of their situation insupportable to them. I wish to examine the validity of each of these ob jections, beginning with the one you have mentioned. I do not mean to controvert your criticism of my favourite books, the Mirror and Lounger, although I understand there are people who think themselves judges, who do not agree with you. The acquisition of knowledge, except what is connected with human life and conduct, or the particular business of his employment, does not appear to me to be the fittest pursuit for a peasant. I would say with the poet, "How empty learning, and how vain is art Save where it guides the life, or mends the heart." There seems to be a considerable lati tude in the use of the word taste. I understand it to be the perception and relish of beauty, order, or any thing, the contemplation of which gives pleasure and delight to the mind. I suppose it is in this sense you wish it to be understood. If I am right, the taste which these books are calculated to cultivate (besides the taste for fine writing, which many of the papers tend to improve and to gratify,) is what is proper, consistent, and becoming in human character and conduct, as almost every paper relates to these subjects. T am sorry I have not these books by me, that I might point out some instances. I remember two one the beautiful story of La Roch, where, beside the pleasure one derives from a beautiful simple story, told in M'Kenzie's happiest manner, the mind is led to taste with heartfelt rapture, the consolation to be derived in deep affliction, from habitual devotion and trust in Almighty God. The other, the story of general Wreader is led to have a high relish for that firmness of mind which disregards appearances, the common forms and vanities of life, for the sake of doing justice in a case which was out of the reach of human laws. where the Allow me then to remark, that if the morality of these books is subordinate to the cultivation of taste; that taste, that refinement of mind and delicacy of.sentiment which they are intended to give, are the strongest guard and surest foundation of morality and virtue.-Other moralists guard, as it were, the overt act; these papers, by exalting duty into sentiment, are calculated to make every de viation from rectitude and propriety of conduct, painful to the mind, "Whose temper'd powers, Refine at length, and every passion wears Withouten that would come an heavier bale, Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale!" And, while he repeats the words, the grateful recollection comes across his mind, how often he has derived ineffable I readily grant you, that the refinement pleasure from the sweet song of “Naof mind which I contend for, inscreases ture's darling child." I can say, from my our sensibility to the evils of life! but own experience, that there is no sort of what station of life is without its evils! farm-labour inconsistent with the most There seems to be no such thing as per- refined and pleasurable state of the mind fect happiness in this world, and we must that I am acquainted with, thrashing balance the pleasure and the pain which alone excepted. That, indeed, I have we derive from taste, before we can pro- always considered as insupportable drudgperly appreciate it in the case before us. ery, and think the ingenious mechanic I apprehend that on a minute examina- who invented the thrashing machine, tion it will appear, that the evils peculiar ought to have a statue among the beneto the lower ranks of life, derive their factors of his country, and should be placed in the niche next to the person who power to wound us, more from the suggestions of false pride, and the "conta-introduced the culture of potatoes into gion of luxury, weak and vile," than the this island. refinement of our taste. It was a favourite remark of my brother's, that there was no part of the constitution of our nature, to which we were more indebted, than that by which "Custom makes things familiar and easy" (a copy Mr. Murdoch used to set us to write,) and there is little labour which custom will not make easy to aI can approve of: and for none more than man in health, if he is not ashamed of his employment, or does not begin to compare his situation with those he may see going about at their ease. But the man of enlarged mind feels the respect due to him as a man; he has learned that no employment is dishonourable in itself; that while he performs aright the duties of that station in which God has placed him, he is as great as a king in the eyes of Him whom he is principally desirous to please; for the man of taste, who is constantly obliged to labour, must of necessity be religious. If you teach him only to reason, you may make him an atheist, a demagogue, or any vile thing; but if you teach him to feel, his feelings can only find their proper and natural relief in devotion and religious resignation. He knows that those people who are to appearance at ease, are not without their share of evils, and that even toil itself is not destitute of advantages. He listens to the words of his favourite poet : "O mortal man that livest here by toil, Cease to repine and grudge thy hard estate! Perhaps the thing of most importance in the education of the common people is, to prevent the intrusion of artificial wants. I bless the memory of my worthy father for almest every thing in the dispositions of my mind, and my habits of life, which the pains he took to impress my mind |