and Veneration being large, he had naturally a leaning towards things invisible, and both in his letters and in his memoranda makes very frequent allusions to the Deity.

"My idle reasonings," he says, "sometimes make me a little sceptical, but the necessities of my heart always give the cold philosophisings the lie." The cold philosophisings, however, at times bore the ascendency; and he seems to have had strong doubts of the existence of a future state. Here the relative deficiency of his Hope is apparent. "I hate," says he, in a letter to Mr Cunningham, "I hate a man that wishes to be a deist, but I fear, every fair unprejudiced inquirer must in some degree be a sceptic. It is not that there are any very staggering arguments against the immortality of man; but, like electricity, phlogiston, &c., the subject is so involved in darkness, that we want data to go upon. One thing frightens me much; that we are to live for ever seems too good news to be true. That we are to

enter into a new scene of existence, where, exempt from want and pain, we shall enjoy ourselves and our friends without satiety or separation-how much should I be indebted to any one who could fully assure me that this was certain!" His religious creed is thus stated in another of his letters:-"Your thoughts on religion shall be welcome. You may perhaps distrust me when I say it is also my favourite topic; but mine is the religion of the bosom. I hate the very idea of controversial divinity; as I firmly believe that every honest upright man, of whatever sect, will be accepted of the Deity." "I despise the superstition of a fanatic, but I love the religion of a man." Burns's Veneration was displayed in his strong jacobitical feeling, and his reverence for Sir. William Wallace. He did not venerate many of his contemporaries, as he thought himself at least the equal of most of them. But men of high rank who showed him attention, he regarded with much respect. No one, however powerful his Veneration may be, ever reveres those whom, under the influence of other faculties, he despises or dislikes. This faculty was doubtless the source of the emotion which he displayed on visiting the tomb of Bruce at Dunfermline. Finally, it is improbable that without naturally strong religious feelings, Burns could have been the author of The Cotter's Saturday Night.

"To this hour, in my nocturnal rambles, I sometimes keep a sharp lookout in suspicious looking places; and though nobody can be more sceptical than I am in such matters [devils, ghosts, witches, &c.] yet it often takes an effort of philosophy to shake off these idle terrors." (Letter to Dr Moore.) To his friend, Alexander Cunningham, he declares his conviction that there exist "senses of the mind, if I may he allowed the expression, which connect us with, and link us to, those awful obscure realities an all-powerful and equally beneficent God, and a world to come beyond death and the grave."

The portrait of Burns seems to indicate a large development of Firmness; but in the cast of his skull, the organ has by no means a marked appearance. A large development of Firmness gives a tendency to persist in purpose, opinion, and conduct. From its activity result perseverance, steadiness, and resolution. So far as I am able to judge, Burns was rather deficient in those qualities. The fervour of his passions," says Mrs Riddell, was fortunately tempered by their versatility. He was seldom, 'never indeed, implacable in his resentments; and sometimes, it has been alleged, not inviolably steady in his engagements of friendship. Much, indeed, has been said of his inconstancy and caprices. The rapidity with which his schemes were generally abandoned, may justly be regarded as an illustration of this feature of his character. A letter from Dr Blacklock, for example, received when he was on the road to Greenock, with the intention of sailing to Jamaica, instantly overthrew his plans, and sent him with almost breathless speed to Edinburgh. He had just written to a friend," Against two things I am fixed as fate, -staying at home, and owning Jean conjugally. The first, by heaven, I will not do the last, by hell, I will never do!" Yet, when the lovers met, the second of these "fixed" resolutions terminated by his giving Jean a written acknowledgment of their marriage!—Firmness is of great use in enabling men of strong passions to withstand their cravings for indulgence, and 'reduce virtuous resolutions to practice. Burns was certainly not distinguished here.

ness.

Conscientiousness is in nearly the same condition as FirmThis feeling was well cultivated in youth by his father, who was a very sagacious, honest, intelligent, and pious man. It was quite sufficient to render him honest and candid when no contending impulse was present, and also to make him aware of his imperfections; but it wanted power to restrain the vehemence of his lower feelings within the bounds of candour and justice. "There is nothing in the whole frame of man," he says, "which scems to me so unaccountable as that thing called conscience. Had the troublesome yelping cur powers efficient to prevent a mischief, he might be of use; but, at the beginning of the business, his feeble efforts are to the workings of passion as the infant frosts of an autumnal morning to the unclouded fervour of the rising sun; and no sooner are the tumultuous doings of the wicked deed over, than, amidst the bitter native consequences of folly, in the very vortex of our horrors, up starts conscience, and harrows us with the feelings of the damned."

Ideality the principal organ of poetical feeling-is large; though, as might have been anticipated from the degree in which he manifested most of the intellectual faculties, it is equalled in size by many of the other organs. Burns's

love of the sublime and beautiful was very strong. His temperament was that which is best adapted for the experience of poetical feeling. He was passionately fond of the beauties of nature, but it was in the dreary, solemn, desolate sublime that he seems to have delighted most. Such a taste I have repeatedly found possessed by individuals with large Destructiveness, Cautiousness, and Ideality, moderate Hope, and a susceptible temperament. Burns was especially fond of the season of winter." This, I believe," says he," may be partly owing to my misfortunes giving my mind a melancholy cast; but there is something even in the

Mighty tempest and the hoary waste,

Abrupt and dead, stretched o'er the buried earth,'—

which raises the mind to a serious sublimity, favourable to every thing great and noble. There is scarcely any earthly object gives me more-I do not know if I should call it pleasure-but something which exalts me, something which enraptures me,than to walk in the sheltered side of a wood or high plantation, in a cloudy winter day, and hear the stormy wind howling among the trees, and raving over the plain. It is my best season for devotion: my mind is wrapped up in a kind of enthusiasm to Him, who, in the pompous language of the Hebrew bard, walks on the wings of the wind." The enthusiasm here mentioned results from activity of Ideality, Wonder, and Veneration. Addison's Vision of Mirza, a production full of Ideality, captivated Burns, as he himself tells us, "before he was capable of fixing an idea to a word of three syllables." In many of his poems, but particularly the Address to Mary in Heaven, he manifests a degree of Ideality which contrasts strongly with the coarseness of his satirical effusions, produced under the influence of far different feelings.

Burns was less remarkable for wit than for humour. The former is well described by Lockhart as a " peculiar vein of sly homely wit." Humour depends on the organs of Secretiveness,

In the Vision, Burns makes Coila address him as follows:

"I saw thee seek the sounding shore,
Delighted with the dashing roar;
Or when the north his fleecy store
Drove through the sky,

I saw grim Nature's visage hoar
Struck thy young eye."

The next stanza refers to the poet's benevolence :

"Or when the deep-green mantled earth
Warm cherished every flow'ret's birth,
And joy and music pouring forth

In every grove,

I saw thee eye the general mirth
With boundless love."

Mirthfulness, and Individuality; while wit is more exclusively connected with the second organ. The poet had little gaiety of disposition about him, except when stimulated by society or otherwise.“ His wit," says Professor Stewart, was ready, and always impressed with the marks of a vigorous understanding; but to my taste, not often pleasing or happy."

Imitation is large. I am not aware whether Burns indulged in mimicry but certainly he had a tendency to imitate the style of such books as he was very familiar with. He was a successful imitator of the old songs of Scotland. Imitation conferred on him also the dramatic power which characterizes some of his humorous productions, such as The Twa Dogs, The Holy Fair, The Jolly Beggars, and also many of his songs. He had an extraordinary tact in assuming for a time the feelings of individuals -identifying himself with them and giving expression to those feelings in forcible and striking language. The great excellence of his songs consists in the admirable adaptation of the words to the tune. When his soul," says Sir Walter Scott," was intent on suiting a favourite air to words humorous or tender, as the subject demanded, no poet of our tongue ever displayed higher skill in marrying melody to immortal verse." For these talents, Imitation is believed to be indispensable.

The intellect of Burns was of a high order. He was not indeed on a level with such men as Bacon, Shakspeare, or Franklin; but his understanding was nevertheless one of unusual power. The anterior lobe projects much forward, and the frontal sinus probably did not exceed the ordinary size. Individuality seems to have been the largest of the intellectual organs. From this, and Eventuality, which is very little inferior to it, originated the remarkable acuteness of his observation, and the vividness of his descriptions. There is nothing general in the pictures which he draws: every object is given with a distinctness and detail which make us almost imagine that the scene itself is before our eyes. Burns's love of knowledge was very strong, and had the same origin. In youth, as his brother Gilbert relates, he read such books as he could procure, with an avidity and industry scarcely to be equalled." "No book," it is added," was so voluminous as to slacken his industry, or so antiquated as to damp his researches." His penetration into the feelings and motives of others arose from Individuality and Secretiveness, joined to the strength of his own faculties in general. The first gave readiness in noticing and remembering facts; the second enabled him to dive beneath external appearances; and the third furnished the consciousness, and hence the full comprehension, of every faculty which actuates man

kind.

There are several of the perceptive faculties, of the manifes

tations of which I am entirely ignorant. He was fond of travelling, and of visiting scenes renowned in history and song. "I have no dearer aim," he tells Mrs Dunlop, "than to have it in my power, unplagued with the routine of business, for which Heaven knows I am unfit enough, to make leisurely pilgrimages through Caledonia; to sit on the fields of her batiles; to wander on the romantic banks of her rivers; and to muse by the stately towers or venerable ruins, once the honoured abodes of her beroes." This wish he afterwards in some measure accomplished. Its principal source was his powerful Locality. By means of the same faculty, he made a good progress" at school in mensuration, surveying, and dialling.

The organ of Tune is full; but I have experienced difficulty in judging of his musical capacity. His teacher mentions that, in childhood, he could hardly distinguish one psalm-tune from another; but it is evident that, at a later period, he was fully alive to the beauty of the sacred music of Scotland. This is proved by the manner in which he alludes to the subject, in The Cotter's Saturday Night:

1

"Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling measures rise;

Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name:
Or noble Elgin beets the heav'nward flame,
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays:
Compared with these, Italian thrills are tame:
The tickled ears no heart-felt raptures raise;
Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise."

Though Burns had no taste for the mere technicalities of music, he was fond of the simple and the expressive. "My pretensions to musical taste," he writes to Mr Thomson," are merely a few of nature's instincts, untaught and untutored by art. For this reason, many musical, compositions, particularly where much of the merit lies in counterpoint, however they may transport and ravish the ears of your connoisseurs, affect my simple lug no otherwise than merely as melodious din. On the other hand, by way of amends, I am delighted with many little melodies which the learned musician despises as silly and insipid." I shall not pretend to say whether the taste of Burns or that of the connoisseurs was the better. The development of the organ of Tune, though not great, is, I think, sufficient to have enabled him to display, after due cultivation, a very respectable amount of musical talent. The faculty, however, was entirely neglected.

Respecting Comparison and Causality I have nothing to remark, except that they are indispensable ingredients in a character so sagacious as that of Burns. There is something ludicrous in the surprise of Dugald Stewart, at the distinct conception which Burns formed of the general principles of association, from at