138 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



ing-houses which he frequented, exhibit to this day lively sallies from 

 his hand." (50.) In the furious strife between the disciples of the 

 "old light" and the "new light," Burns made his muse conspicuous, 

 taking prominent part with the latter, who, as might be inferred from 

 his advocacy, were inclined to slacken the cords of spiritual discipline. 

 By the satiric productions which marked his adoption of the more 

 liberal side, he " won the approbation of certain ministers of the Kirk 

 of Scotland;" and we do not wonder on hearing that "venerable 

 clergymen applauded those profane sallies, learned them by heart, 

 carried copies in their pockets, and quoted and recited them till they 

 grew popular, and were on every lip." (57.) Party spirit will do and 

 dare any thing. That a genius like that of Burns should rise into 

 eminence on the bubble of faction is in no degree creditable to his 

 " native place," but that it is the fact his biographer admits, and very 

 properly laments. A well-drawn and very interesting sketch of " the 

 person and manners of the poet at this important period of his life," we 

 shall graft upon our pages ; it is a vivid and valuable portrait, dashed in 

 by the hand of a master. 



" 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 fierce, 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." (P. 59) 



Between the period at which this portrait was taken and that of the 

 poet's experimental journey to the Scottish metropolis, a thousand little 

 interests occur on which we well might linger, and truly we regret that 

 we cannot here expatiate upon them. We had sedulously noted many 

 statements and sentiments for particular comment, and had marked 

 many noble passages for extract ; but we have already travelled far 

 beyond the bound- mark originally laid down. The progress of the 

 bard, his tender " hommage-aux-dames ;" the melancholy failure of the 

 farm at Mossgiel ; his feud with the father of Mrs. Burns, and his con- 

 sequent separation from the latter ; the bringing-out of his volume of 

 poems by Wilson, of Kilmarnock ; its deserved but unanticipated 

 success ; the touching difficulties of his situation ; the efforts of Hamilton 

 and Aiken to get him into the Excise, with a view to superseding the 

 necessity of his West Indian project ; his introductions to many gifted 

 and nobly-descended individuals, with Dr. Blacklock's fortunate and 

 momentous criticism, and the poet's consequent expedition to Edin- 

 burgh, are detailed with an ease, an animation, and an affecting 

 earnestness, equally honourable to Mr. Cunningham in his capacity as a 

 writer, and his character as a man. The poet's sojourn in Edinburgh, 

 his residence in Nithsdale, and his abode at the "good town" of 

 Dumfries, together with some general reflections, and a critical comment 

 on the almost unequalled beauty of the embellishments, we must reserve 

 for a future number. This we do with less fear of intruding upon the 

 forbearance of our readers, as the 6th volume of Mr. Cunningham's 

 edition announces the agreeable intelligence that two additional volumes 

 are intended in the course of " a month or two," thus securing us from 

 the chance of outstripping the immediate interest of publication. 



