1797-] 
Original Anecdotes.—~ Robert Burns. 
213 
Alfo, the twelve leafl numbers, which, being divided as above, fhall have remainders of 9, 3, 
7,6, &c. always lefs than the divifion by unity; but if divided 
mainder ? 
by 11) fhall have no ree 
mae 
Question KXXX.—By Mr, T. Hickman. 
In a plate triangle, having given the vertical triangle, the bafe, and the ratio of the fegments, 
made by a line bifecting the vertical angle ; to .conitruét the triangle ? 
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Errata.—Page 38, line 3, of the Solution to Queftion 21, for equal to $4, read equal to 84-1 
Page 131, Queftions 26 and 27 fhould be numbered Quettions 27 and 28. 

ORIGINAL ANECDOTES AND REMARKS °° 
OF 
EMINENT 
PERSONS? 
{This article is devotedto the reception of Biographical Anecdotes, Papers, Letters, &c. and 
que requeft ibe Communications of fuch of our Readers as can affift us in thefe objects. | 
MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE 
ROBERT BURNS. 
OBERT Burws was a native of Ayr- 
foire, one of the weftern counties of 
Scotland. We was the fon of humble pa- 
rents: and his father paffed through life 
in the condition of a hired labourer, or 
of a {mall farmer. Even in this fitua- 
tion, however, it was not hard for him 
to fend his children to the parifh fchool, 
to receive the ordinary inftruction in 
reading, writing, arithmetic, and the 
Qrinciples of religion. By this courfe of 
education, young RoBeRT profited toa 
degree that might have encouraged his 
friends to deftine him to one of the libe- 
ral profeffions, had not his father’s po- 
verty made it neceflary to remove him 
from {chool, as foon as he had grown up, 
to earn for himfelf the means of fupport, 
as a hired plough-boy,-or fhepherd. | 
The eftablifhment of PARISH SCHOOLS, 
but for which, perhaps, the infant cner- 
gies of this young genius might never 
have received that firft impulfe, by which 
alone they were to be excited into action, 
is one of the moft beneficial that have 
been ever inftituted in any country ; and 
one which, I believe, is no where fo 
firmly fixed, or extended fo completely 
throughout a whole kingdom, as in Scot- 
land. Here, every parith has a {chool- 
mafter, almoft as invariably as it has a 
clergyman. For a fum rarely exceed- 
ing twenty pounds, in falary and fees, 
this perfon inftructs the children of the 
parifh in reading, writing, arithmetic, 
book-keeping, Latin, and Greek. The 
fchoolmafters are generally ftudents in 
philofophy or theology ; and hence, the 
eftablifhment of the parith {chools, befide 
its dire&t utilities, poffeffes alfo the acci- 
dental advantage of turnifhing an excel- 
lent /chool of future candidates for the of- 
fice of parochial clergymen. So {mall 
are the fees for teaching, that no pa- 
rents, however poor, can want the means 
to give their children at leaft fuch edu- 
cation at {chool, as young Burns re- 
ceived. From the /pring labours of a 
plough-boy, from the /anmer employ- 
ment of a fhepherd, the peafant-youth 
often returns, tor a few months, eagerly 
to puriue his education at the parifh- 
{chool. 
It was fo with Burns; he returned 
from labour tolearning, and from learning 
Went again to labour, till his mind began 
to open to the charms of tafte and know- 
ledge ; till he began to feel a pathon for 
books, and for the fubjeéts ‘of books, 
which was to give a colour to the whole 
thread of his future life. On nature, he 
foon began to gaze with new difcern-- 
ment, and with new enthufiafm: his 
mind’s eye opened to perceive affecting 
beauty and fublimity, where, by the 
mere grofs peafant, there was nought to 
be feen, but water, earth, and fky, but 
‘animals, plants, and foil; even as the 
eyes of the fervant of Elifha were fud- 
denly enlightened to behold his mafter 
and himfelf guarded from the Syrian 
bands, by horfes and chariots of fire, ta 
all but themfelves, invifible. 
What might perhaps firft contribute 
to difpofe his mind to poetical efforts, is 
oné paricular in the devotional piety of 
the Scotifh peafantry ; it is ftill common 
for them to make theig children get by 
heart the pialms of David, in that ver- 
fion of homely rhymes, which is ufed in 
ee | their 
