1797+] 
among his fellows, for extraordinary in- 
telligence, good fenfe, and penetration, 
long before vihers, or perhaps even him- 
Self, fufpeéted him to be capable of writ- 
ing verfes.. His mind was mature, and 
well-ftored with fuch knowledge as lay 
within his fearch ; he had made himfelf 
matier of powers of language, fuperior 
to thofe of almoft any former writer in. 
the Scottith dialeét, before he concciv- 
ed the idea of furpadling Ram/ay and 
fergufon. 
{nthe mean time. befides the ftudious 
bent of his genius, there were fome 
other particulars in his opening: charac- 
ter, which might feem to mark him for 
a poet. He began early in life, to re- 
gard with a fort of fullen difdain and 
averfion, all that was fordid, in the pur- 
fuits and interefts of the peafants, alnong 
whom he was pleced. He became dit- 
contented with the humbie labours to 
which he faw himfelf confined, and 
with the poor fubfifence he was able to 
earn by them. He could not help look- 
ing upon the rich and great, whom he 
faw around him, with an emotion be- 
tween envy and contempt; as if fome- 
thing had ftill wnifpered to his heart, that 
there was injuftice in the exterior ine- 
quality between his fate and their’s. 
While fuch emotions arofe in his mind, 
he conceived an inclination, very com- 
mon among the young men of the more 
uncultivated parts of Scotland—to go 
abroad to America, or the Weft Indies, 
in queft of a better fortune ; at the fame 
time, his heart was expanded with paf- 
flonate ardour, to meet the impredfions 
of love and frzendjbip.” With feveral of the 
young peafantry, who were his fellows 
in labour, he contraéted an affe€tionate 
intimacy of acquaintance. He eagerly 
fought admiffion into the brotherhood of 
Free Majfons, which is recommended to 
the young men of this country, by no- 
thing fo much as by its feeming to ex- 
tend the {phere of agreeable acquaint- 
ance, and to knit clofer the bonds of 
friendly endearment. In fome Ma/on 
Ladges in his neighbourhood, Burns 
had foon the fortune, whether good or 
bad, to gain the notice of feveral gentie- 
men, better able to eftimate the true 
value of fuch a mind as his, than were > 
his fellow-peafants, with whom alone 
he had hitherto affociated. One or two 
of. them, might be men of convivial dif- 
pofitions, and of religious notions, rather 
licentious. than narrow; who encou- 
raged his talents, by occafionally invit- 
ing him to be the companion of their 
Original Anecdotes.——Robert Burns. 
243 
215 
loofer hours; and who were at times. 
not ill-pleafed to dire&t the force of his 
wit and humour, againft thofe facred 
things which they afiected outwardly to 
defpite, as mere dugbears, while they 
-could not- help inwardly trembling be- 
fore them, as realities. For a while the 
native rectitude of his underfanding, 
and the excellent principles in which his . 
infancy had béen educated, withflood 
every temptation to intemperance or im- 
piety. Ajias! it was not always fo.— 
When his heart was firft firuck by ‘the 
charms of village beauty, the fove he 
felt, was pure, tender, fimple, and fin- 
cere, as that of the youth and maiden in 
his Cotter’s Saturday Nighi. Ui the ardour 
of his paffion hurried him afterwards to 
triumph over the chaftity of the maid 
he loved the tendernefs of his heart, 
the manly honefty of his foul, foon made 
him offer, with eager folicitude, to re- 
pair by marriage tive injury of love. 
About this time, in the progrefs of 
his life and character, did he firft begin 
to be diftinguifhed asa POET. A ma- 
fonic fong, a fatirical epigram, a rhyming 
epiitle toa friend, attempted with fuc- 
cefs, taught him tu know his own 
powers, and give him tonidence to try 
tafks more arduous, and which thauid 
command fill higher burfts,of applause. 
The annual celebration of the Sacramenz 
of the Lord’s Supper, in the rural parifhes.. 
of Scotland, has much in it of thofe cld 
Popife fettivals, in which fuperftition, 
trafne, and amufement, ufed to be 
{trangely intermingled, Burns faw, 
and feized in it one of the happieft of 
all fubjeéts, to afford fcope for the dif- 
play ot that ftrong and piercing fagacity 
by which he could almoft intuitively dif- 
tinguifh the reafonable from the abfurd, 
and the becoming from the ridiculous; — 
of that picturef{que power of fancy, 
which enabled him to reprefent fcenes, 
and perions, and groupes, and looks, at- 
titude, and gefture, in a manner almoft _ 
as lively and impreilive, even in words, 
as if all the artifices and energies of the 
_ pencil had been employed ;—-of that 
knowledge which he had neceffarily ac- 
quired of the manners, patlions, and 
prejudices of the rutftics around him— 
of whatever was ridiculous, no lefs than 
of whatever was affectingly beautiful, in 
rural life. A thoufand prejudices of 
Popifb, and, perhaps too, of ruder Pagay 
fuperftition, have, from time immemo- 
rial, been conneéted in the minds cf the 
Scotti/b peafantry, with the annual recur 
rence of the Eve of the Fefival of ail the 
| Saints, 




