The Arkansas banner., 1844-11-06
 RnREPT prPNS

we take it from Blackwood's Magazine, oi
 which he is editor, and may therefore be sup
 posed 10 be from his own hand.
 PROFESSOR WILSON then rose and said
 Were this festival bat to commemorate the
 genius of Burns, and it were asked, what
 nsed for such communication, since his fame
 is co-extensiye with the literature of the land,
 and enshrined in every household1 might
 answer. that although admiration of the po-
 ct be as wide as the world, yet we, his com patriots, 10 whom he is especially dear, re- loice to see the universal sentiment concen- tered in one great assemblage of his own people that we meet in thousands and tens af thousands to honor him, who delights sech single one of Us at his own hearth.-- But this commemoraton expresses, too, Il not profounder, more tender sentiment; for it is to welcome his sons to the land he has illustrated, so that we may at once in-
 dulge our national pride in great name, and graiify in flial hearts the most pious of afiec-
 lions. There was, in former times, cus-
 tom ofcrowning great poets. No such oVa-
 ,on honored our bard, though he too tasted
 of human applause, felt its delights, and
 knew the trials that attended 1t. Which
 would Burns himself have preferred, cele-
 bration like this in his lifetime, or fifty years
 after his death , venture to say, he would
 have preferred the posthumous as the finer
 incense. The honor and it's object arc then
 seen in ulster proportion; for death eonters an elevation which the candid soul ol the poet would have considered,and such honor he would rather have reserved for his names, than have encountered it with his living infirmities. And could he have foreseen the day, when they for whom at times he was sorely troubled, should, after many years oi separation, return to the hut where himself was born, and near it, within the shadow oi his monument. be welcomed for his sake, by the lords and ladies of the land; and, dear CT thought still to his manly breast-by the children and the children's children of peo pie of his own degree, whose hearts he sought to thrill by his first voice of inspira- ton; surely had the vision been sweeter 10 his soul than even that immortal one, i'll which the Genius of the Land bound the holly round his head, the lyric crown that Il will wear forever.
 Of his three sons sitting here, one only can remember his fathers iace--those large lustrous eyes of his, so full of many mean- ings, as they darkened in thought, melted in melancholy. or klndled in mirth, but never turned onh his children, or on their excellent mother, but with one of tender or intense al- lection. That son may even on this day have remembrance of his fathers head, with its dark clusters not unmixed with grey, and those eyes closed, lying upon the bed of death. Nor should il fora moment plaeidly appear, is such image unsuitable to this fes- tiyal For in bidding welcome 10 his sons have conferred on me a high honor, you have likewise imposed on me a solemn duty and, however inadequately may discharge 1t, trust that in naught shall do any Yio- fence to the spirit either of humanity or oi truth
 shall speak reverently of Burns's char actar in hearing of his sons; but not even in their hearing must forget what is due always to established judgment of the the everlasting right Like all other mortal be- ings he had his iaults-great even in the eyes of men-grievous in the eyes of fIeaven.- Never are they to be thought of without sor- row, were 1t but for the misery with which he himself repented them. But as there is moral in every mans life, even in its outward condition imperfeetly understood, how much more affecting when We read it in confessions wrung out by remorse from the greatly gift ed, the gloriously endowed But 1t is not his faults that are remembered here-assured- ly not these we meet to honor. To deny error 10 be error, or to extenuate its blame, that makes the outrage upon sacred truth but 10 forget that it exists, or f not wholly so, to think of it along with that under-cur- rent of melancoly emotion at all times accom- panying our meditations on the mixed char acters of men-that is not only allowable, but 1t is ordered-it is a privilege dear 10 hu- manity-and we'll indeed might he tremble for himself who should in this be deaf to the voice of nature crying from the tomb.
 And mark how graciously in this does time aid the inclinatons of charity Its shadows soften what they may not hide In the distance, diseordances that once jared painiully on our ears are now undistinguish- able-lost in the music sweet and solemn, that comes from afar with the sound of great mans name. It is consolotary 10 see. that the faults of them whom their people honor grow fainter and fainter in the nation- al memory, while their virtues wax brighter and more bright, and if injustice have been done to them in life (and who now shall dare to deny that the cruellest injustice was done to Burns } each succeeding generation becomes more and more dutful to the dead to repair the wrong by profound CT homage. As Ii is by his virtues that man may best hope to live in the memory of man, IS there not something unnatural, something monstrous in seeking to eternize here below, that of which the proper doom is obscurity and oblivion' Howbenefcent thus becomes the power of example? The good that men do then indeed ''lives after them''-all that was ethereal in their being alone survives and thus ought our cherished memories Of our best men-Burns was among our best to be invested with all consistent excellen- cies; for far better may their virtues instruct us by the love which they inspire, than ever could their vices by aversion.
 To dwell on the goodness of the great, C Gh<.ru fl,.,t. l..