188 SCOTTISH POETRY. 



Burns loved liberty of speech, and his own morals were not over 

 pure ; one side wished for " humility/' the other for free-will. 



The satiric labours of Burns in aid of the New Light, were " The 

 Holy Tulzie," " Holy Willie's Prayer," The Kirk's Alarm," and 

 " The Ordination/' all sufficiently caustic, but written on subjects of a 

 temporary nature, therefore, possessing little attraction to many of 

 his readers ; indeed, the poet wished these controversial pieces to die. 

 " The Ordination" alone was admitted into his works. The poems 

 that brought Burns into notice are now little heeded. 



" These satiric rhymes established the fame of Burns in his native place : 

 his company was now courted by country lairds, village lawyers, and 

 parish school-masters, and by all persons who had education above com- 

 mon, or kept some state in their household." P. 58. 



And Mr. C. adds that he was 



(( pointed out at church and at market, and peasant spoke of him to 

 peasant as a wild witty lad, who lived at Mossgiel, and had all the humour 

 of Ramsay, and more than the spirit of Fergusson." P. 59. 



We subjoin the biographer's description of Burns at this period; 



" His large dark expressive eyes; his swarthy visage ; his broad brow, 

 shaded with black curly hair ; his melancholy look, and his well-knit frame, 

 vigorous and active all united to draw men's eyes upon him. He affected, 

 too, a certain oddity of dress and manner. He was clever in controversy ; 

 but obstinate, and even ferce, when contradicted, as most men are who 

 have built up their opinions for themselves. He used with much taste the 

 common pithy saws and happy sayings of his country, and invigorated his 

 eloquence by apt quotations from old songs or ballads. He courted con- 

 troversy, and it was to this period that Murdoch, the accomplished mecha- 

 nic, referred, when he told me that he once heard Burns haranguing his 

 fellow-peasants on religion at the door of a change-house, and so unaccept- 

 able were his remarks that some old men hissed him away. Nor must it 

 be supposed that, even when listened to, he was always victorious. 

 * Burns, sir/ said one of his old opponents, ' was a 'cute chield and a 

 witty, but he didna half like to have my narrow coming owre his new- 

 fangled notions.' "Pp. 59, 60. 



The fame which the New Light verses brought to the poet, led him to 

 think very much of himself; he gave his manners abrush, andresolutely 

 set about altering his name from Burness to Burns, and put his name 

 also as Poet in many of his books. The last time that the Bard wrote 

 his name Burness (which Mr. Cunningham could discover) was on 

 the 10th of March, 1786; and his biographer thinks that up to this 

 period " he imagined he had achieved nothing under the name of 

 his father deserving to live." P. 66. 



This remark may be very true, but Burns before March, 1786, had 

 written many of his best epistles in verse to Smith, to Lapraik, and 

 to Sillar; his " Address to the Deil" was written in the winter of 

 1785 ; and " Death and Dr. Hornbook" was the offspring of the same 

 year. Either the biographer or the Poet were unfortunate in their 

 judgment. 



In 1784, Burns became acquainted with Jean Armour, and about 

 the same time, or a little after, with " Highland Mary." Mary 



