BURNS, ROBEKT. 



11URTON, JOHN 1IILU. 



low 



them that they should nuke a legal acknowledgment of an irregular 

 and private marriage, and that he ahould then set out for Jamaica to 

 posh hi* fortune. " But before leaving my native country for ever," 

 he says, " I received to publith my poems. I weighed my productions 

 ai impartially a* wa< in my power ; I thought they hud merit ; and it 

 wai a delieiotti idea that I ahould bo called a clever fellow, even 

 though it should never roach my ears." An impression of 600 oopioe 

 of the work accordingly wa printed at Kilmarnook. This was in the 

 autumn of 1 7S6. The poem* were well received by the public, and after 

 paying all expenses the author cleared nearly 20/. " This luui," he 

 says, "oame very leaionably, as I wai thinking of indenting myself, 

 for want of money to procure my passage. A* soon a> I wai master 

 of nine guineas, the price of wafting me to the torrid cone, I took a 

 steerage pawago in the first ship that was to sail from the Clyde, for 

 ' hungry ruin had me in the wind.' I had been for some days skulking 

 from covert to covert under all the terrors of a jail, as some ill-advised 

 people had uncoupled the merciless pack of the law at my heels." 

 This was to oblige him to find security for the maintenance of his 

 children; for the parents of the mother were so indignant that, not- 

 withstanding what had happened, they would not allow the man-luge 

 to take place, and the children to be legitimatised. He proceeds : " I 

 had taken farewell of my few friends ; my chost was on the road to 

 Qreenock ; I had composed the last song 1 should ever measure in 

 Caledonia, ' The gloomy night U gathering fast,' when a letter fr mi 

 Dr. Blacklock to a friend of mine overthrew all my schemes by opening 

 new prospects to my poetic ambition. The doctor belonged to a set 

 of critics for whose applause I had not dared to hope. His opinion 

 that I would meet with encouragement iu Edinburgh for a second 

 edition fired me so much, that away I posted for that city, without a 

 single acquaintance or a single letter of introduction." 



The result was the introduction of the poet to all who were eminent 

 in literature, in rank, or in fashion, in the Scottish metropolis. The 

 brilliant conversational powers of the unlettered ploughman seem to 

 have struck all with whom be came in contact with as much wonder 

 as his poetry. Under the patronage of the Earl of Oleucairn, Dr. 

 Robertson, Professor Dugald Stewart, Mr. Henry Mackenzie, and other 

 persons of note, a new edition of his poems was published, from the 

 profits of which be received nearly 5002. In the spring of 1738 he 

 returned to Ayrshire, where his brother Gilbert, who had taken upon 

 him the support of their aged mother, was struggling with many 

 difficulties in the farm thsy had conjointly taken. Robert advanced 

 200/., and with the remainder of his money he prepared to stock 

 another farm that of KllUland in Dumfriesshire for himself. Here 

 he took up his abode iu June 1788, having previously legalised his 

 union with Miss Armour by joining with her in a public declaration 

 of their marriage. 



Soon after this, by the interest of Mr. Graham of Fiutry, he was 

 appointed, on his own application, an officer of excise for the district iu 

 which he lived. The salary which he received in this capacity was origi- 

 nally SOL a year, but was eventually increased to 702. His duties however 

 interfered so much with the attention due to his farm, that he found 

 himself obliged to resign the farm to his landlord, after having occupied 

 it for about three years and a half. About the end of the year 1791 

 :red with hit family to a small house in the town of Dumfries, 

 placing his dependence for the future exclusively on his chances of 

 promotion in the excise. 



In Dumfries Hums spent the short remainder of his life. The habits 

 which he bad acquired during the sudden and short-lived intoxication 

 of his first introduction to public notice now gained entire ascendancy 

 over him, as misfortune and disappointment broke or at least embit- 

 tered bis spirit, and enfeebled his powers of resistance. The strong 

 excitements of admiration and applause by which he had been sur- 

 rounded at Edinburgh were sought for at any cost, and among 

 companions of any order who would join him in drowning reflection. 

 Even the prospects upon which he hod placed his reliance of advance- 

 ment in the excite were suddenly overcast in consequence of some 

 imprudent expressions which he had dropped on the subject of the 

 French revolution, to which some despicable informer had called the 

 notice of the board. It was only through the exertions of his friend 

 Mr. Graham, on this occanion, that ho was saved from being dismissed. 

 Ill-health and great dejection of spirits at last came upon him, along 

 with the pressure of accumulating pecuniary difficulties. He had 

 produced many of his happiest pieces, and especially the best and the 

 greatest number of his songs, since the appearance of the first Edinburgh 

 edition of his poems. The songs were principally contributed to an 

 Edinburgh publication called Johnson's ' Museum,' and afterwards to 

 a work of much greater pretension, the well-known 'Collection of 

 Origin*! Scottish Airs,' edited and published by .Mr. George Thomson. 

 Burns's correspondence with Thomson on the subject of his contri- 

 butions to this work has been printed, and forms a highly-interesting 

 series of letters, as well as an affecting chapter in the poet's history. 



He died on the 21st of July. His remains wera consigned to the 

 rartb with the solemnities of a pubh'c funeral, which was rendered 

 remarkably imposing by the voluntary attendance of a vast multitude 

 of parson* of all ranks from every part of the surrounding country. 

 Bums left four sons (besides a boy who died in his infancy), two of 

 whom entered the East India Company's army : one of these has risen 

 to the rank of colonel. 



The first collected edition of tho poems and letters of Burns was 

 published by Dr. Currie at Liverpool, in 4 voU. Hvo, iu 1 SOO, for the 

 benefit of the poet's wife and family. Of the accounts of his lifo that 

 have appeared since that by Dr. Currie, -the most important are that 

 by Mr. Lockhart, first published in 1838, that by Mr. Allan Cunning- 

 ham, prefixed to his edition of the works of Burns, in 8 voU. 

 London, 1834, and that by Mr. It. Chambers comprised with tho Works 

 of Burns in 4 volumes. 



Tho history of literature scarcely affords another instance of a popu- 

 larity cither so sudden or so complete as that obtained by tho poetry 

 of Burns. Even in his own lifetime, and indeed almost immediately 

 after hi.i genius first burst into public notice, his name and his poems 

 wera familiar to all ranks of his countrymen. Nor did the enthu- 

 siasm for his poetry die away with the generation among whom it 

 was first kindled. His works are still everywhere a cottage-book in 

 his own land, and they are read wherever the English language U 

 understood. 



No poetry was ever bettor fitted to obtain oxtensivo popularity than 

 that of Burns. It has little of either grandeur or richness of imagina- 

 tion, qualities that demand much cultivation of mind as well as a 

 somewhat rare endowment of the poetic temperament for their appre- 

 ciation and enjoyment It is all heart and passion, and every 1 

 bosom capable of feeling strongly must be stirred by it" fu 

 tenderness. The themes which Hums has chosen are all of the kind 

 which come home to the natural feelings of men, and his mode of 

 treating them is the most simple and direct In what he bos written, 

 in his native dialect at least, there is nowhere anything of more 

 rhetorical ornament or display. The expression is throughout, as 

 truly as that of any poetry ever was, the spontaneous utterance of the 

 thought or sentiment, which falls into measured words as if it and thuy 

 were struck out together by the same creative act In his lyrical 

 pieces especially, the passion, and tho language, and tho melody which 

 is ' married ' to tho ' immortal verse," seem to come all in one gush 

 from the full fountain of tho heart In this exquisite truth of stylo 

 no writer iu any language has surpassed Burns. But, with all his 

 nature, he is, like every great writer, also a great artist, nature being 

 the inspiration of his art. Nothing con be more masterly more 

 demonstrative both of high skill and of general elevation of mind 

 than tho manner iu which he triumphs over the disadvautag< 

 dialect so much vulgarised as that of Scotland had come to be at the 

 time when he wrote. Of mere licence and indecorum there is cer- 

 tainly no want in some of hU productions; but notwithstanding the 

 familiar character of his subjects and the freedom of his diction, even 

 in his broadest humour, in his moat unpardonable violations of moral 

 propriety, in the rudest riot of his merriment and satire, there is never 

 anything that is mean or grovelling, anything that offends our sense 

 of what is noble and elevated. Some of tho most immoral of 1m 

 pieces are distinguished by a studied propriety of expression springing 

 from the finest taste and most delicate sensibility to the beautiful. 



BURRITT, ELIHU, was born in New Britain, Connecticut, 

 United States, on the 8th of December 1811, and was the youngest of 

 ten children. His father was a shoemaker. Klihu had only about 

 three months tuition at tho district school, till after the term of his 

 apprenticeship to the village blacksmith hod expire 1, when, ' 

 iu the meantime laboured hard at self-instruction, he became n 

 student for six months under his brother Elijah, who was a school- 

 master. At this period ho made considerable progress iu mathe- 

 matics, and in the Latin and French languages. On returning i" V.-. 

 employment as a blacksmith, iu which be was engaged from ten to 

 twelve hours daily, he diligently prosecuted the study of languages, 

 and managed, he says, to acquire a knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, 

 Syriac, Spanish, Danish, Bohemian, and Polish. Mr. Kverctt, the 

 governor of Massachusetts, having heard some extraordinary accounts 

 of the attainments of a young blacksmith at Worcester, invite;! him 

 to Boston, where he received much attention and kindness. Returning 

 to his labours, he continued his studies, and in 1842 translated some 

 of the Icelandic Sagos. He also supplied to the ' American Eclectic 

 Review' a series of translations from the Samaritan, Arabic, and 

 Hebrew, and was iu the habit of delivering lectures on literary nnd 

 scientific subjects. In 1S43 he began to study the Ethiopia, I' 

 and Turkish language*. In 1S44 he commenced the publication of a 

 newspaper entitled ' Tho Christian Citizen.' 



Mr. Iturritt has taken a leading part iu advocating the principles of 

 tho society calling itself the ' League of Universal Brotherhood.' He 

 has also lectured and spoken for the temperance and anti-xlavcry 

 societies. Ho first visited England in June 1845, and from that time 

 till the present he has been occupied in promoting the extension of 

 what are called 'peace and brotherhood' priuciples, and iu urging 

 the adoption of an ocean peny postage. In pursuit of these objects 

 he has had a principal share iu convening congresses of representa- 

 tives of peace societies, at London, Paris, Brussels, and Frankfurt ; and 

 lias likewise revisited his native country. The 'Bond of Brother- 

 hood,' a small periodical issued by the ' League,' is chiefly the pro- 

 duction of Mr. Burritt His other literary productions ii 

 'Sparks from tho Anvil,' 'A Voice from tho Forge,' and ' Peace Papers 

 for the People.' 



BURTON, JOHN HILL, son of Lieutenant Burton of the Kith 

 regiment of foot, was educated for the Scottish law, and passed advo- 



