216 
Saints, or Halloween. Thefe were all 
intimately known to Burns, and had 
made a powerful impreflion upon his 
imagination and feclings. He chote 
them for the fubj-cit of a poem, and 
prouuced a piece, which is, almod to 
frenzy, the delight ot thofe who are 
beft acquainted with its fubjeét; and 
which will not fail to Bren the me- 
mory of the preiudices and ufages 
which it defcrives, wien they thail, 
perhaps, have ccafed to give one merry 
evening in the year, to the cottage fire- 
fide. The fimple joys, the honett love, 
the fincere friendthip, the ardent devo- 
tion of the cottage; whatever in the 
more folemn part of the ruftic’s life is 
humble and artlefs, without being mean 
or unfeemly—or tender and dignified, 
without afpiring to filred grandeur—or 
to unnatural. buikined pathos, had deeply 
imprefied the imagination of the rifing 
poet; had in fome fort wrought itfelf 
into the very texture of the “Gbres of 
his foul. He tried to exprefs in verle, 
what he moft tenderly pre what he 
moft enthufiaftically 1 mae ee and pro- 
duced the Cutter’s Saturday’s Nght. 
Thefe pieces, the true Jena of ge- 
nius, informed. by reading and obierva- 
tion, and prompted by its own native 
ardour, as well as by friendly applaufe ; 
were foon hand ed about among the 
moft difcerning of Buxns’s acquaint- 
ance ; and were by every new reader, 
peruled, and re-perufed, with an eager- 
nefs of delight and approbaticn, which 
sould not fuffer him long to withhold 
shem from the prefs. A feb/eript.on was 
propofed, was carnefly promoted by 
fome gentlemen, who ee glad to in- 
tereft themfelves in behalf of fuch fig. 
nal _ poetical mer.t 3; wes foon crowded 
with the hames of a confiderable numb 
of the inhabitants of Ayrihire, w ho, in 
the proitered purchafe, fon ight 
to grat: fy their own paffien 1 for 
pociy, than to encourage tne \ 
ploughman. At KILMARNOCK, were 
the peer: Si of Burns, fer the firft tifne, 
printed. The whole edition was guichly 
drftributed over the country. 
At is hardly poffible to “exprefs, Mu th 
what eager adiniration and delight t hey 
were.evety where reccived. us hey en emi- 
nently pall feffed all thofe qual lities which 
the moft inVarlabiv contribute to render 
any literary work guickly and perma- 
nently popu volar, They were written ina 
ph waleology, of which all the powers were 
ufiverfaliv felt; and which | being atone 
Original Anecdotes.—Burns.,.Couthon. 
[ March, 
antique, familiar,and now rarely written, 
was hence fitted to ferve all the digni- 
fied and pi¢turefque. ufes of poetry, 
without making it unintelligible. The 
imagery, the fentiments, were, at once, 
faithfully natural, and irrefitibly impref- 
five and interefting, . Thofe topies of fa- 
tire and fcandal in which the ruftic de- 
lights ; that Smerous imitation of. cha- 
racier, and that wuty affuciation of ideas 
familiar and firiking, yet not naturally 
allied to one another, which has ferce 
to fhake. his fides with laughter; thofe 
fancies of fuperfiition, at-which he ftill 
wonders and trembles 5 thole affeéting 
fentiments and images of true religion, 
which are at once dear and awful to his 
heart, were all reprefented by Burns 
with all a poet’s magic power. Old and 
young, high and low, grave and gay, 
learned or ignarant, all. were alike de- 
lighted, agitated, trap{ported. I was 
at that time refident in “—a//oway, conti- 
guous to 4yrf/bire, and I can well re- 
member, how that even plough-bays 
and maid-fervanis would have gladly 
parted with the wages which they earn- 
ed the moft hardly, and which they 
wanted to purchafe neceffary clothing, 
if they mign but procure the works of 
Burns. A copy happened to be pre- 
fented from a gentleman in Ayrthire to a 
friend in my neighbourhood ; he put it 
into my hands, as a work containing fome 
effufions of the mot extraordinary ge- 
nius. Itook it, rather that | might not 
difoblige the lender, than from any ar- 
dour of curiofity cr expeciation. « An 
unlettered ploughman, a poet >” faid I, 
with contemptuous. incredulity. It was 
on a Saturday evening. I opened the 
velume, by accident, while I was un- 
dreiiing, to. go to bed. I clofed it not, 
till a late hour on the riing Sunday 
morn, after I had read over every fyllable 
it contained. ~ And, 
Ex illo Corydon, Corydon eff tempore nobis I 
Virc. Ec. 7. 
[ Zo be continued. | 

ANECDOTESOF PERSONS CONNECTED 
WITH'THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
CouTHON 
BY viewing the conduct ‘of this man in 
the latter part of his life only, it 
might eafily be conceived that he was by 
nature cruel,, like Sylla the Roman- 
This, however, was nut the cate; for till 
he had been corrupted by evil communi- 
was admired for the amiable- 
; . nels 
Cabos he 
