relic of the early days of the lodge, contains three minutes entirely in the handwriting of the poet, and 29 more signed by him as Depute Master. It is still preserved by the lodge and is shown to visitors, though under more careful supervision than in former days. The first minute, holograph but unsigned, is dated 1st September, 1784, and reads thus: "This night the lodge met and ordered four pounds of candles and one quire of eightpence paper for the use of the lodge, which money was laid out by the treasurer and the candles and paper laid in accordingly." The first minute signed by Burns as D.M. is that of 29th June, 1785, and the last that of 23rd May, 1788. Up till 1st March, 1786, they are signed "Robt. Burness." On that date his brother Gilbert got his second and third degrees in the lodge, and both he and the Depute Master spelled the name 66 Burns." During Burns's tenure of office Professor Dugald Stewart became an honorary member of the lodge, as also did Claude Alexander of Ballochmyle, brother of the lady immortalised as "The bonny lass o' Ballochmyle." Despite the assertion made by Robert Chambers in his Land of Burns, the last date of the poet's signature was not that of his last appearance in St. James Lodge, for on 21st October and again on 11th November, 1788, the minutes record his presence in the chair. On St. John the Baptist's Day, 24th June, 1786, St. James Lodge held an annual gathering. This was the occasion which drew from Burns the well-known lines to Dr. John M'Kenzie: Friday first's the day appointed By our Right Worshipful Anointed For me, I wad be mair than proud If Death, then, wi' skaith then That Saturday ye'll fecht him. When misfortune overtook him and arrangements had been completed for his emigration to Jamaica, Burns penned his "Farewell" to St. James Lodge beginning Adieu a heart-warm, fond adieu, Dear brothers of the Mystic Tie! Ye favour'd, ye enlighten'd few, Companions of my social joy! Tho' I to foreign lands must hie, Pursuing Fortune's slidd'ry ba', With melting heart, and brimful eye, I'll mind you still, tho' far awa'. The reference in the concluding verse of the piece is to Major-General James Montgomerie, Master of the Lodge, whose Depute he was, and who as Capt. Montgomerie was one of the conspirators at the severance of the junchen." Burns was connected with two other Ayrshire lodges. On 27th March, 1786, he was admitted a member of Loudoun Kilwinning, at Newmilns. He was introduced by the Master, who at that time was his friend Gavin Hamilton. The minute adds, "John Morton, merchant in Newmilns, is answerable for Mr. Robert Burns's admission money." On 26th October, 1786, the poet was admitted an honorary member of St. John Kilwinning Lodge, Kilmarnock, now No. 22, but originally No. 24. The minute reads: "Robert Burns, poet from Mauchline, a member of St. James, Tarbolton, was made honorary member of this Lodge. (Signed) Will. Parker." It was for this occasion that he composed the song: Ye Sons of Auld Killie, assembled by Willie, Your thrifty old mother has scarce such another I've little to say, but only to pray, As praying's the ton of your fashion; A prayer from the Muse you well may excuse, 'Tis seldom her favourite passion. Ye powers who preside o'er the wind and the tide, Who formed this frame with beneficent aim, May secrecy round be the mystical bound, The original has the inscription: "This song, wrote by Mr. Burns, was sung by him in the Kilmarnock Kilwinning Lodge in 1786, and given by him to Mr. Parker who was Master of the Lodge." The concluding four lines were used later by Burns in an apology for his absence from St. James Lodge, dated from "Edinburgh, 23rd August, 1787." The text is as follows Men and Brethren, I am truly sorry it is not in my power to be at your quarterly meeting. If I must be absent in body, believe me I shall be present in spirit. I suppose those who owe us monies, by bill or otherwise, will appear; I mean those we summoned. If you please, I wish you would delay prosecuting defaulters till I come home. The Court is up, and I will be home before it sits down. In the meantime, to take a note of who appear and who do not, of our faulty debtors, will be right in my humble opinion; and those who confess debt and crave days, I think we should spare them. Farewell. [Then follows the stanza, but beginning "Within your dear mansion."] ROBT. BURNS. The so-called defaulters were brethren who had borrowed from the lodge-a common practice in earlier days. Burns's Masonic mark appears in minute books; it appears also twice in the Bible which he presented to Highland Mary" when he parted from her on the banks of the River Ayr in May, 1786, prior to his intended departure for the West Indies. He fashioned it thus: 사 R. T. HALLIDAY. K BURNS AS A CRITIC OF HIS AGE. Early in 1928 the Rector of the High School of Glasgow, at the request of Sandyford Burns Club, organised a competition in essay-writing among the pupils attending his school. The subject of the essay was selected by the Rector-Mr. Peter Pinkerton, M.A., D.Sc.-and one of the conditions laid down was that compositions submitted should be the unaided work of pupils. The paper which was placed First by the adjudicators is printed here, some unimportant portions being omitted; its writer received from the Club books to the value of Three guineas. Great poets in all ages, while dwelling much on the things which are eternal, have given us in addition, consciously or unconsciously, pictures of their own times. Even Virgil does this: are not his compliments to the Julian gens an index of the rise of Augustus? Even Shakespeare: do not the tavern-scenes of "Henry IV." savour anachronistically of the days of Elizabeth? But in the work of no poet is the picture more clear than in that of Robert Burns. Nor is this surprising; for it was characteristic of Burns to be antagonistic to his epoch, and in his poetry-especially his non-lyrical poetry-he gave full vent to his antagonism. Born in an age when men wrote less of life than of the adjuncts of life, Burns almost alone preferred the heart to the furbelow, the fireside to the ballroom. Born in an age when men wrote only of the rich with knowledge and thought of the poor, either, like the idyllists, with exaggerated envy, or, like Crabbe, with exaggerated pity, Burns almost alone could describe the joys and the sorrows of the peasant with insight and with love. Born in an age when men were more prone to accept than to criticise, or, at most, to level molehills than to raze mountains, Burns almost alone attacked the more common vices and follies of his contemporaries, and substituted for the trivialities of a "Dunciad " the living |