UL] 
Original Memuirs of the late Rober? Burns. 
561 
Yt is true that he did not always fteadily his works, as from his converfation an 
diftinguifh and efchew the evils of 
drunkennefs and licentious love; it is 
‘true that thefe, at times, feem to pean 
even the ‘approbation of his mufe: but 
there remains in his works enough to 
fhow, that his cooler reafon, and all his 
better feelings, earneftly rejected thofe 
gay. viges which he could fometimes, 
unhapgily, allow himfel if to practife, and 
‘fometimnes to recommend to ‘others, by 
the charms which his imagination lent 
them.” What was it but the clear and 
ardent difcrimination of juftice from 
es ee which infpired that indignation 
swith which his heart often’ burned, when 
he faw thofe exalted a fortune, who 
were not exalied by their merits? His 
Cottar’s Saturday Night, and all his grave 
. Poems, breathe a rich vein of the “mow 
amiable, yet manly, and even de clicately 
correct © morality. In his pieces of 
fatire, and of lighter humour, it is fill 
upon the accurate and paifionate difcern- 
ment of falfehood, and of moral turpitude, 
that his ridicule turns. Other poets are 
often as remarkable for the incorre“inefs, 
Or even the ablurdity cf their general 
truths, as for intere fing fablimicy, or 
tendernefs of fenti iment, or for pictur- 
efque tplendgur of imagery ; BURNS is 
fot lefs happy in teaching general truths, 
than in that difplay of: fe timent and 
imagery, wilich more peculiarly belongs 
to the prowince of the poet. Borns’s 
morality deferves this high praife—that 
it is nat a. fyfem metely of W/eretion 
it is mot founded upon any fcheme Ae 
fuperftition ; but’ fee (6 have always 
itstot pee: ond the teft by which it is to 
be tried, in the matt diffulive benevolence, 
and in a regard ‘for the ‘univerfal good. 
The oaly other ‘leading ‘feature of 
charaCter that appears: to Tbe frikingly 
difp layed in the life and writings of 
eee is & lofty-minded CONSCIOUS- 
“NESS Of brs own TALENTS 
Hence the fierce and contemptuous afpe- 
Aity of his fatire; the fullen and gloomy 
‘dig gaity of his coin plaints, addreffed, not 
fo much to alarm the foul of pity, as to 
reproach injuftice, and to make fortunate 
bafenefs ihrink abafhed; that general 
gravity and clevation of his feat aves: 
which admits no humbly infinuating 
fportivenels of wit, which fcorns ail 
compromife between the right and the 
expedient, which decides with 
‘authorita‘ive voice of a judge, from 
whom there is no appeal, upon charac- 
ters, principles, and events, whenever 
‘they prefent themfelves tonotice. From 
2: 
commion life and manners. 
and MERITS. 
the’ 
manners, pride feems to have excluded 
the effufions of vanity. In the compoft- 
tion, or corre¢tion of his poetry, he never 
fuffered the judgment, even of his moft 
re{pectable friends, to digtate to him. 
Phis line in one of his poems (“When I 
look back on profpedts drear’’) was criti- 
cifed; but he would not condefcend 
either to reply to the critici{m, or to alrer 
the expreffion. Not a few of his fmaller 
Pieces are fuficiently trivial, vulgar, and 
hackneyed in the thought, are “fach as 
the pride of genius thould have difdained 
to write, or, at leaft, to publith; but 
there is reafon to believe that he defpifed 
fuch pieces, even while he wrote and 
publi fhed them; that it was rather in 
regard to the effeéts they had already 
produced upon hearers and readers, than 
from any oyerweening opinion of their 
intrinfic worth, he fuifered them to be 
printed. His wit is always dignified : 
he is not a merry-andrew in a motley 
coat, fporting before you for your diver- 
fion ; buta hero, or a philofopher, deign- 
ing to admit you to witnels his relaxa- 
tions, fill exercifing the great energies 
of his foul, and little caring, at “the 
moment, whether you do, or do not, 
cordially fympathize with his feelings. 
His ee may be all diftributed into 
the two clafles of paflorals and pieces upon 
In the former 
clafs, I include all thofe in which rural 
imagery, and the manners and fentiments 
of ruftics are chiefly deferibed: in the lar-. 
ter, Iwould ces: his epigrams, 
epiftles, and, in fhort, all thofe pieces in 
which the ey and fentiments are 
drawn fromthe conditionand appearances 
of common life, without any particular 
reference to tle country. It isin the 
firft clafs that the moft excellent of. his 
poems are ale to be found. . Thofe 
few pieces which he feems t6 have at- 
tempted inthe Della Crufea ftyle, appear 
tome to be the leaft commendable of all 
his writings: he ufually employs thofe 
forms of Denarau which have been 
-ufed chiefly by the former writers of 
poetry in the Scottifh dialect, and by 
fome of the elder Englith poets. His 
phrafeolbgy is evidently drawn from 
thote badks of Englift poetry which 
were in his hands, from the writings of 
former Seottith poets, and from thle 
unwritten ftores of. the Scottith dialect, 
which became known to’ him, in the 
converfation of his fellow - peafants, 
Some other late writers in the Scottith 
dialect feem to think, that not to write 
Englith 
