CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS 13o 



1781, we find him at Irvine, placed at '* flax-dressing" under the eye of 

 one Peacock, ** kinsman to his mother;** but, at the death of the 

 elder Burn ess, whose " all went among the hell-hounds that prowl in 

 the kennel of justice" (Burns), the farm of Mossgiel, near Mauchline, 

 was subsequently taken and entered upon by Robert and his brother. 

 Here it was that Burns '* began to be known in the neighbourhood as a 

 maker of rhymes," and here we shall quote from his biographer, who 

 truly says, "we are about to enter into the regions of romance." The 

 following is filled not only with the light of truth, but with that of 

 beauty. *'The course of his life hitherto has shewn that his true voca- 

 tion was neither the plough nor the hackle. He acquired, indeed, the 

 common knowledge of a husbandman ; but that was all he knew or 

 cared to know of the matter. * Farmer Attention,' says the proverb, 

 * is a good farmer all the world over ;' and Burns was attentive as far as 

 ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, stacking, thrashing, winnow- 

 ing, and selling went ; he did all this by a sort of mechanical impulse, 

 but success in farming demands more. The farmer should know what 

 is doing in his way in the world around ; he must learn to anticipate 

 demand, and, in short, to time every thing. But he who pens an ode 

 on his sheep when he should be driving them forth to pasture — who 

 stops his plough in the half-drawn furrow, to rhyme about the flowers 

 which he buries — who sees visions on his way from market, and makes 

 rhymes on them — who writes an ode on the horse he is about to yoke, 

 and a ballad on the girl who shews the whitest hands and brightest eyes 

 among his reapers — has no chance of ever growing opulent, or of pur- 

 chasing the field on which he toils. The bard amidst his ripening corn, 

 or walking through his fields of grass and clover, beholds on all sides 

 images of pathos or of beauty, connects them with moral influences, and 

 lifts himself to heaven : a grosser mortal sees only as many acres of pro- 

 mising corn or fattening grass, connects them with rising markets and 

 increasing gain, and instead of rising, descends into * Mammon's filthy 

 delve.' That poetic feelings and fancies such as these passed frequently 

 over the mind of Burns in his early days, we have his own assurance ; 

 while labour held his body, poetry seized his spirit, and, unconsciously 

 to himself, asserted her right, and triumphed in her victory." (P. 26.) 

 At page 29, we are told that ** Burns was, or imagined himself, be- 

 loved ; he wrote from his own immediate emotions; his muse was no 

 visionary dweller by an imaginary fountain, but a substantial 



' Fresh young landart lass,' 



whose charms had touched his fancy. Nor was he one of those who 

 look high and muse on dames nursed in velvet laps and fed with golden 

 spoons." In this we instantaneously acquiesce. Burns was not morally 

 constituted for the tender ambition of adoring high-born loveliness ; his 

 tastes were humble ; his conceptions of beauty, and grace and expres- 

 sion, simple indeed, his eye in reality saw but little in the prototype, but 

 his fancy worked upon that little, and wrought it into a creation of artless 

 attraction. His ** belles" are but comely rustics, captivating undoubtedly 

 to an uncultivated taste, but losing their impression when drawn out of 

 their sphere ; meet ornaments to a pastoral group, but ordinary models 

 when viewed through the glass of criticism, or with the eyes of impartiality. 

 His peasants are Scotch peasant girls, not the divine-featured maidens of 

 Greece or Italy ; and two-thirds of their charms are the liberal endow- 

 ment of the bard. After commenting on his lighter lyrical pieces, Mr. 



