BURNS BURSA. 



765 



adventures of fairies, witches, warlocks, ghosts, and 

 goblins, which she religiously believed, ana therefore 

 detailed with the most impressive effect to her ad- 

 miring auditors. Burns's first poetical effusions were 

 prompted by love, a passion of which he was pecu- 

 liarly susceptible. Having begun, he continued to 

 make verses, which attracted the notice of his neigh- 

 bours, and gained him considerable reputation. In 

 1781, he engaged in business as a flax-dresser, in the 

 town of Irvine; but his premises were destroyed by 

 fire, and he was obliged to relinquish the undertaking. 

 His father dying, he took a small farm in conjunction 

 with a younger orother; and this scheme also proved 

 unsuccessful. In the mean time, he had formed a 

 connexion with a young woman, whom, on her be- 

 coming pregnant, he would have married; but his 

 ruined circumstances induced her friends to object to 

 it. Thus unsuccessful at home, he engaged himself 

 as assistant overseer to a plantation in Jamaica. To 

 obtain the funds necessary for the voyage, he was in- 

 duced to publish, by subscription, a volume of his 

 poetical effusions. It was accordingly printed at 

 Kilmarnock in 1786, and Burns, having derived 

 from the publication the assistance he expected, 

 was about to set sail from his native land, when his 

 purpose was prevented by the communication of a 

 letter from doctor Blacklock to a friend of the 

 Ayrshire poet, recommending that he should visit 

 Edinburgh, in order to take advantage of the general 

 admiration his poems had excited, and publish a new 

 edition of them. This advice was eagerly adopted, 

 and the result exceeded his most sanguine expecta- 

 tions. After remaining more than a year in the Scot- 

 tish metropolis, admired, flattered, and caressed by 

 persons of eminence for their rank, fortune, or talents, 

 he retired to the country with the sum of 500, 

 which he had realized by the second publication of 

 his poems. A part of this sum he advanced to his 

 brother, and with the remainder, took a considerable 

 farm near Dumfries, and at the same time procured 

 the office of an exciseman. He also now completed 

 his matrimonial engagement with the feale (Miss Ar- 

 mour) to whom he had been contracted. His convivial 

 habits ere long prevented him from paying a proper 

 attention to his farm ; and, after a trial of three years 

 and a half, he found himself obliged to resign his 

 lease, and remove to the town of Dumfries, to follow 

 his employment as an exciseman. He continued to 

 exercise his pen, particularly in the composition of a 

 number of beautiful songs, adapted to old Scottish 

 tunes, for a periodical work published at Edinburgh. 

 But his residence in Dumfries was by no means fa- 

 vourable to his habits. His society was courted by 

 the idle, the gay, and the dissipated, who were de- 

 lighted with his conversation, or charmed with his 

 brilliant wit ; and, perhaps, many who had little sym- 

 pathy with the powers of his genius, were eager to 

 solicit his acquaintance and society, that they might 

 be able to boast of an intimacy with so extraordinary 

 a man. In the winter of 1795, his constitution, brok- 

 en by cares, irregularities, and passions, fell into pre- 

 mature decline. The summer returned, but only to 

 shine on his sickness and his grave. In July, 179G, 

 a rheumatic fever terminated his life and sufferings, 

 at the early age of thirty-seven. He left a wife and 

 tour children, for whose support his friends and ad- 

 mirers raised a subscription ; and with the same ob- 

 ject, an edition of his works, in four vols. 8vo, was 

 published by Dr Currie of Liverpool. 



In his person, Burns was about five feet ten inches 

 high, of a form that indicated strength as well as agi- 

 lity ; his forehead was finely raised ; his eyes were 

 dark, large, full of ardour and intelligence. His cha- 

 racter, though marred by imprudence, was never 

 contaminated by duplicity or meanness. He was an 



honest, proud, warm-hearted man ; combining sound 

 understanding with high passions and a vigorous and 

 excursive imagination. He was alive to every species 

 of emotion ; and he is one of the tew poets who have 

 at once excelled in humour, in tenderness, and in 

 sublimity. His songs, his tales, and his poetical epis- 

 tles, display pathos, wit, a vigour of sentiment, and a 

 purity and elegance of style, which, in spite of their 

 being clothed in what may be termed a provincial 

 dialect, not only ensure a permanent fame to their 

 author, but advance him high in the records of na- 

 tive genius. His prose compositions, which consist 

 entirely of private letters, never intended for the 

 press, are altogether as extraordinary productions as 

 his poems ; and those literary men who were ac- 

 quainted with him have asserted, that his conversa 

 tiou was not less calculated to leave a powerful im- 

 pression of the extent and accuracy of his knowledge 

 and observation, and the strength and vivacity of his 

 genius. 



BURNTISLAND, or BnuNTisLAND, a parish and royal 

 borough in Fifeshire, situated on the north side of tiie 

 firth of Forth. It is distant six miles N. N. W. from 

 Leith, to which there is a regular ferry. Population 

 in 1831, 2366. 



BORRAMPOOTER, or BRAMApooTRA, is the largest river 

 in India. Its sources, not yet explored, seem to be situ- 

 ated near lake Manasarovara, in Thibet, near those of 

 the Indus. In Thibet, it is called the Sanpoo, flows 

 by Lassa, the residence of the Grand Lama, and, after 

 being lost to European knowledge, re-appears in As- 

 sam. In its rise and fall, its periods coincide nearly 

 with those of the Ganges. Its navigation is rendered 

 difficult by shifting sand banks, and trunks of trees 

 sticking in its bed. After entering Bengal, it joins 

 the Ganges, at Luckipoor, where the united rivers 

 form a wide gulph, communicating with the sea of 

 Bengal. The course of the B. is estimated at about 

 165O miles. Rising from opposite sides of the same 

 mountains, and separating to a distance of 1 200 miles, 

 the B. and the Ganges are destined to mingle their 

 waters again in the same channel. 



BURRILL, James, an American senator, was born in 

 Providence, Rhode Island, April 25, 1772. He re- 

 ceived his education at the college in Providence, 

 now Brown university, and was graduated in Sepu 

 1788. He then pursued the study of the law, and 

 was admitted to practise in the supreme court of the 

 state before he reached his majority. In a few years, 

 he stood at the head of his profession in Rhode Island. 

 In October, 1797, he was elected, by the general 

 assembly, attorney general of the state, and annually 

 after, by the people, for seventeen successive elections. 

 The decay of his health, and other causes, induced 

 him to resign that office in May, 1813. In 18](>, he 

 was appointed, by the general assembly, chief jus- 

 tice ot the supreme court, having been, for several 

 years previous, speaker of the house of representa- 

 tives of Rhode Island. In the next year, he was 

 placed in the senate of the United States, of which he 

 remained a highly esteemed member until the period 

 of his decease, December 25, 1820. 



BURSA, a city of Natolia, in Asiatic Turkey, with a 

 population of about 60,000 Turks, Greeks, Armenians, 

 and Jews, engaged in commerce, and the manufac- 

 ture of satins, silk stuffs, carpets, gauze, &c. The 

 bazars are filled with merchandise, and the caravans, 

 passing from Aleppo and Smyrna to Constantinople, 

 promote its commerce. It contains 1 40 mosques, two 

 of which are magnificent, and is adorned witti an im- 

 mense, number of fountains. It is one of the most 

 beautiful cities in the empire, situated in a fertile and 

 finely wooded plain, which is enclosed by the ridges 

 of Olympus, and abounds in hot springs. The castle, 

 which i&jtbout a mile in circumference, is supposed 



isaboi 



