had been accustomed to give law in the circle of his ordinary acquaintance; and his dread of any thing approaching to meanness or servility, rendered his manner somewhat decided and hard. Nothing, perhaps, was more remarkable among his various attainments, than the fluency, and precision, and originality of his language, when he spoke in company; more particularly as he aimed at purity in his turn of expression, and avoided more successfully than most Scotchmen, the peculiarities of Scottish phraseology. 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 Mareschall. Indeed he did not appear to have thought much on such subjects, nor very consistently. He had a very strong sense of "He came to Edinburgh early in the religion, and expressed deep regret at the winter following, and remained there for levity with which he had heard it treated several months. By whose advice he occasionally in some convivial meetings took this step, I am unable to say. Per- which he frequented. I speak of him as haps it was suggested only by his own he was in the winter of 1786-7; for aftercuriosity to see a little more of the world; wards we met but seldom, and our conbut, I confess, I dreaded the consequen-versations turned chiefly on his literary ces from the first, and always wished that projects, or his private affairs. his pursuits and habits should continue the same as in the former part of life; with the addition of, what I considered as then completely within his reach, a good farm on moderate terms, in a part of the country agreeable to his taste. "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 ofhis mind,exceeded, if possi"The attentions he received during his ble,that which is suggested by his writings. stay in town, from all ranks and descrip- Among the poets whom I have happened tions of persons, were such as would have to know, I have been struck in more than turned any head but his own. I cannot one instance, with the unaccountable dissay that I could perceive any unfavoura-parity between their general talents, and ble 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. If I recollect right he always wore boots; and, when on more than usual ceremony, buck-skin breeches. "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 BraidHills, 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 the occasional inspirations of their more favourable moments. But all the faculties of Burns's mind were, as far 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 The Editor has seen and conversed with Burns. 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. treme facility and good-nature of his taste in judging of the compositions of others, where there was any real ground 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. Aikiu, which I first put into his hands, he read with unmixed delight, notwithstanding his former efforts in that very difficult "In summer, 1787, I passed some weeks in Ayrshire, and saw Burns occasionally. I think that he made a pretty long excursion that season to the High-species of writing; and I have little doubt lands, and that he also visited what Beat- that it had some effect in polishing his tie calls the Arcadian ground of Scot- subsequent compositions. land, upon the banks of the Tiviot 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 society, 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 of 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 Mason-Lodge in Mauchline, where Burns presided. He had occasion to make some short unpremeditated compliments to different individuals from whom he had no reason to expect a visit, and every thing 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 elocution. "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 excellences 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 former 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, rude, as it probably was, gave, it is presumable, the first direction to her son's genius. "Of the more polished verses which accidentally fell into his hands in his early years, he mentioned particularly the recommendatory poems, by different authors, prefixed to Hervey's Meditations; a book which has always had a very wide circulation among such of the country people of Scotland, as affect to unite some degree of taste with their religious "I must not omit to mention, what I studies. And these poems (although they have always considered as characteristical are certainly below mediocrity) he conin a high degree of true genius, the ex-tinued 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 instruction 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? Shall nature's voice, to man alone unjust, 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 improvement 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 Drumseugh, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where I was then living. My friend, Mr. Alison, was the only other person in company. I never saw him more agreeable or interesting. Bid him, though doom'd to perish, hope to live? A present which Mr. Alison sent him af Is it for this fair virtue oft must strive, This truth sublime, his simple sire had taught: terwards 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 general principles of the doctrine of association. When I saw Mr. Alison in Shropshire last autumn, I forgot to inquire if the letter be still in existence. If it is, you may easily procure it, by means of our friend Mr. Houlbrooke."† "With respect to Burns's early education, I cannot say any thing 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 The scene that opened on our bard in principles of the language. He began the Edinburgh was altogether new, and in a study of Latin, and dropt it before he had variety of other respects highly interestfinished the verbs. I have sometimes ing, especially to one of his disposition of heard him quote a few Latin words, such mind. To use an expression of his own, as omnia vincit amor, &c. but they seem- he found himself, "suddenly translated ed to be such as he had caught from con- from the veriest shades of life," into the versation, and which he repeated by rote. presence, and, indeed, into the society of I think he had a project, after he came to a number of persons, previously known to Edinburgh, of prosecuting the study un-him by report as of the highest distincder his intimate friend, the late Mr. Nicol, one of the masters of the grammar-school here; but I do not know that he ever proceeded so far as to make the attempt. tion 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 * Or rather 1789-90. I cannot speak with confi "He certainly possessed a smattering of French; and, if he had an affectation in any thing, it was in introducing occasionally a word or phrase from that lan-dence with respect to the particular year. Some of guage. It is possible that his knowledge my other dates may possibly require correction, as J in this respect might be more extensive keep no journal of such occurrences. than I suppose it to be; but this you can + This letter is No. CXIV It is to be presumed that these generous sentiments, uttered at an era singu larly 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. late Dr. Robertson, Dr. Blair, Dr. Gre- | knowledge, and public spirit, she may ex gory, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Mackenzie, and pect protection, wealth, and liberty. **** Mr. Frazer Tytler, may be mentioned in May corruption shrink at your kindling the list of those who perceived his un-indignant glance; and may tyranny in the common talents, who acknowledged more Ruler, and licentiousness in the People, especially his powers in conversation, and equally find in you an inexorable foe!*** 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 lovely and accomplished daughter. The singular beauty of this young lady was illuminated by that happy expression of countenance which results from the union of cultivated taste and superior understanding, with the finest affections of the mind. The influence of such attractions was not unfelt by our poet. "There has not been any thing like Miss Burnet, (said he in a letter to a friend,) in all the combination of beauty, grace, and goodness the Creator has formed, since Milton's Eve, on the first day of her existence." In his Address to Edinburgh, she is celebrated in a strain of still greater clevation: "Fair Burnet strikes th' adoring eye, Heaven's beauties on my fancy shine! I see the Sire of Love on high, And own his work indeed divine!" This lovely woman died a few years afterwards in the flower of 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 vour courage, 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 accustoming 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 corresponding 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 * See Dedication prefixed to the Poems. scope to much curious and melancholy | I hit on any thing clever, my own apreflection. He saw his danger, and at plause will, in some measure, feast my times formed resolutions to guard against vanity; and, begging Patroclus' and it; but he had embarked on the tide of dis- Achates' pardon, I think a lock and key sipation, and was borne along its stream. a security, at least equal to the bosom of any friend whatever. Of the state of his mind at this time, an authentic, though imperfect document remains, in a book which he procured in the spring of 1787, for the purpose, as he himself informs us, of recording in it whatever seemed worthy of observation. The following extracts may serve as a speci men: 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, 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. Nor am I 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 confidant, 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 "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 to sale. "To these seemingly invidious, but too just ideas of human friendship, I would cheerfully make one exception-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 it part, And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart. There confidence, confidence that exalts that endears them the more to each other's them the more in one another's opinion, hearts, unreservedly "reigns and revels." But this is not my lot; and, in my situation, if I am wise, (which, by the by, I have no great chance of being,) my fate should be cast with the Psalmist's sparrow, "to watch alone on the house-tops." -Oh! the pity! * ** "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 every where, with the reception which a mere ordinary character, decorated with the trappings and futile distinctions of fortune meets. I imagine a man of abilities, his breast glowing with honest pride, conscious that men are 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 eight-penny tailor, and whose. heart is not worth three farthings, meet with attention and notice, that are withheld from the son of genius and poverty? |