2th 
their churches. In the morning,-and in 
the evening of every day; or, at leaf 
on the evening of every Saturday and 
Sanday, thefe plaims are fung tm folemn 
family - soepotion, a chapter of the bible is 
yead, and extemporary prayer is fer- 
vently uttered. The whole books of the 
facred {criptures are thus continually in 
the hands of almoft every peafant. And 
it is impoffible that there fhould not be 
occafionally fome fouls among them, 
awakened to the divine emotions of ge- 
nius, by that rich aflemblage which thofe 
Hooks prefent, of almoft all that is inte- 
refting in incidents, or piéturefque m 
imagery, or affectingly fublime or tender 
In fenremnents and charaéter. It is im- 
poffible that thofe rude rhymes, and the 
fimple artlefs mufic with which they are 
accompanied, fhould not occafionally ome 
cite fome care toa fond perception of the 
melody of verfe. That Burns had felt 
thefe impulf es, will appear undeniab] 
certain to whoever fhall carefully perufe 
his Cottar’s Saturday's Night; or- fhall re- 
mark, with nice obfervation, t the various 
fragments of /eripture fentiment, of /erip- 
jure imagery, of Jeripture language, which 
are {cattered throughout his eerie: 
Still more interefting to the young 
peafantry, are thofe ancient ballads Be 
love and war, of which a great number 
are yet popularly Known and fung in 
Scotland.  W hile the prevalence cf the 
Gaelic language in the northern pare of 
this country, excluded from -thofe re- 
gions the old Angio- Saxon fongs and 
minftrels; thefe feos gs and minftrels were, 
inthe ie time, driven by the Norman 
conquefts and eflablihments, out of the 
fouthern ccunties of, Encland; and were 
Forced to wander, m exile, ,.beyond, its 
northern confine, into the fourherimdif- 
tritts of the Scottith kingdom... Hence, 
in fhe old ee ny is every famous 
minftrel fill related to have been, of the 
north COURITY whil he contrary, mn 
7. 
ey, 
the old Scottith fongs, itis always the aud 
countyy,to which every favourite minfirel 
is faid to belon g- It is the fame difirict 
to which both a lude; a diftriét compre- 
hending precifely the fouthern counties 
of Scotland, with the mot northern 
coenties of En land. In the :fouth of 
Scotland, aimoft all the beft of thofe bal- 
lads ar pee fune bythe ruftic. maid or 
matron at her. (pinving- wheel. The 
are lifttened to, with ravifhed ears, by 
old and y oung. Their rude melody.; that 
mingled c uriofity and awe, which are na- 
turally excited by the very idea of. their 
al €iquity 5‘ the exquifitely ‘tender and na- 
tural ¢ com plaints fometimes poured for.h 
on 
Original Anecdotes. — Robert Burns. 
in them ; the gallant deeds of knightly- 
heroifm, es they fometimes cele- 
brate ; their wild tales of demons, ghofts, 
aad fairies, in whofe exiftence fuperfti- 
tion alsne has believed; the manners 
which they reprefent ; the obfolete, yet 
picturefque and expreflive language in 
which they are often clothed ; give them 
wonderful power to tran{port every ima- 
gination, and tc agitate every heart. To 
the foul of Burns, they were likea happy 
breeze touching the wires of an A®olian 
harp, and calling forth the moft ravifhing 
melody. 
Befide all this, the Gentle Shepherd, and 
the other poems ef <Ad/az Ramfay, have’ 
long been highly‘ popular in “Scotland. 
They fell early into the hands of 
Burws; and while the fond applaufe 
which they received, drew his emula-- 
tion, they prefented to him likewife 
treafures of phrafeclogy, and models of 
verfification. . Rudiman's Weekly Maga- 
xine was during this time publifhed ; was ~ 
fupported chiefly by the original com- 
munications of correfpondents, . and 
found a very extenfive fale. Init, 
BuRws read, particularly, the poetry of 
Robert Fergufon, written chiefly im the 
Scottifh dialeét, and exhibiting many 
fpecimens of uncommon peetical ~excel- 
lence. The Seafons of Ihomfon too, the 
Grave of Blair, the far-famed Elegy of 
Giays the Paradije Loft ef Milion, per-— 
haps the Minfirel of Beutite, were focom- 
monly read, even among thofe with whom 
BuRNs. would naturally aflociate, that 
poetical curiofity, although even lefs ar- 
cent. than his, could,.in fuch circum- 
frances, have little difficulty in procuring 
hem: 
With fuch means to give his imagi- 
nation a poetical bias, and to favour the 
culture of his tafte and genius, BuRNs 
gradually became a poet. He was not, 
howev ery one of thofe forward children, 
who, from a mifteken impulie,. begin 
prematurely to write and to rhyme, and 
hence, never attain to excellence. Con- 
verfing familiarly tor a long while, with 
th of thofe poets who were 
tire Wor ig 
know to him: centemplating the af- 
pect of nature, in a diftrict which ‘ex~ 
hibits am uncommon affemblage: of the 
beautiful and the ruggedly grand, of the 
culciyated and the wild; locking upon 
human. life with an eye quick: ahd keen, 
to,remark as well the ftronger and lead- 
ing, as the nicer and. fubordinate. fea- 
tures of charaéter—to diferiminate the 
generous, the honourable, the manly, in” 
conduét, from the ridienionsg the. bafe, 
and the mean: he was diftinguithed 
among 
| March, 
re 
