now taken such a shape with him as could not long continue if improvement was not to be looked for nature could only for a limited time maintain this dark and warfare against the world and itself we are not informed whether any continuance of years was at this period probable for burns whether his death is to be looked on as in some sense an accidental event or only as the natural consequence of the long series of events that had preceded the latter seems to be the opinion and yet it is by no means a certain one at all events as we have said some change could not be very distant three gates of it seems to us were open for clear poetical activity madness or death the first with longer life was still possible though not probable for physical causes were beginning to be concerned in it and yet had an iron resolution could he but have seen and felt that not only his highest glory but his first duty and the true medicine for all his woes lay the second was still less probable for his mind was ever among the and so the third gate was opened for him and vol i s miscellaneous he passed not yet speedily into that still where the and fir � how rs do not reach and tbe heaviest laden at length lays down his load contemplating this sad end of and how he sank hy any real help hy any wise sympathy generous minds have sometimes figured to themselves with a sorrow that much might have been done for him that by counsel true and friendly ke might have been saved to himself and the we question whether there is not more tenderness of heart n of judgment in these suggestions it to us whether the richest wisest most benevolent individual ii ould have lent burns any effectual help counsel which seldom any one he did not need in hm understanding he knew the right from the wrong as well perhaps as any man ever did but the persuasion which would have availed him lies not so in the head m� in ihe heart wh re no or have ed much to it as to money again we do not really believe that this was his essential want or weu see how any private man could even s consent have bestowed on him an independent fortune with much prospect of decisive advantage it is a truth that two men in any rank of ty could hardly be found virtuous enough to give money and to take it as a necessary gift without injury to the moral of one or both but so stands the fact friendship in the old heroic sense of that term no longer exists except in the of kindred or other legal it is in reality no longer expected or recognised as a virtue among men a close observer of manners has pronounced patronage that is pecuniary or other to be twice cursed him that gives and him that takes and burns thus in regard to outward matters also it has become the rule as in regard to inward it always was and must be the rule that no one shall look for effectual help to another but that each shall rest contented with what help he can himself such we say is the principle of modem honor naturally growing out of that sentiment of pride which we and encourage as the basis of our whole social morality many poet has been poorer than but no one was ever we may question whether without great precautions even a from would not have and more than actually assisted him still less therefore are we disposed to join with another class of s admirers who accuse the higher ranks among us of having ruined by their selfish neglect of him we have stated our doubts whether direct pecuniary help had it been offered would have been or could have proved very effectual we readily admit however that much was to be done for that many a poisoned arrow might have been from his bosom many an in his path cut asunder by the hand of the powerful and light and heat shed on him from high places would have made his humble atmosphere more genial and the heart then breathing might have lived and died with some fewer pangs nay we shall grant further and for it is much that with all his pride he would have thanked even with exaggerated gratitude any one who had cordially him patronage unless cursed needed not to have been twice so at all events the poor promotion he desired in his calling might have been granted it was his own scheme therefore than any other to be of service all this it might have been a luxury nay it was a duty for our nobility to have done no part of all this however did s miscellaneous writings any of them do or apparently attempt or wish to do so much is granted against them but what then is the amount of their simply that they were men of the world and walked by the principles of such men that they treated as other and other had done other poets as the english did as king charles and his did butler as king philip and his did do men gather grapes of thorns or shall we cut down our thorns for yielding only a and how indeed could the nobility and gentry of his native land hold out any help to this bard proud of his name and country were the nobility and gentry so much as able rightly to help themselves had they not their game to preserve their interests to strengthen dinners therefore of various kinds to eat and give were their means more than adequate to all this business or less than adequate less than adequate 