The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-02-09

There is another interesting fact to be
noted in this connection. 1t is the honor
freely accorded to Burns by so many and
so eminent religious men.
az Burns in his day was hated and perse-
cuted by the church. Hewa esteemed
an enemy to religion and good morals,
most dangerous and unsafe man. But
to day one of the profoundest thinkers Of
any age tells US; "Not Latimer or Luther
struck more telling blows against False
Theology, than did this brave singer"
He, with his soul of fire aud poesy,
with his quick susceptibility to tempta-
ton, with his glowing social instincts,
with his rich, sensuous nature, was Judged
by the same rule that is applied to the
passive clay-cold man, who is good SIM
ply by negation; pure, because he has
no warm blood to tempt to sin. This is
all wrong. In judging of the strength of
a virtue we must consider what were the
opposing forces, and we doubt not Burns
was purer in heart than many of his cal
umniators. 9e ..Ft .sys.- -.....
Mr.. Beecher understands how to take
into account the conditions of tempera-
ment, and speaking of Burns failings, he
says:- i1.s vs a So.
at was question, not how man
should carry cup half full on his way.
but how should he carry great cup brim
full over rough and stormy road at
night? 1t was not a question of what
was right and what duty, but what chance
Robert Burns had with a nature com
pounded of such eccentricity and opposite
qualities"
Our heart warns toward Mr.. Beecher
for thatjust and generous judgment; and
Whittier shows like christian charity
when he sings
To-day be every fault forgiven,
vi HIM IN whom we JOY
We take with thanks the gold of heaven,
And leave the earths alloy.
. Holmes, too, says of his brother-b bard;
We love him, even in his wrong,
s= His wasteful self-surrender. ga
al We feel it both pleasure and duty
to protest against that judgment which
calls Shakespeare sensualist, Burns lib
ertine, and Dickens an infdel. We should
remember that great souls have great
temptations, and that 'a aa1t
What's done we partly may compute 'si
Bat knoW not aghat's resisted. E 5ie.
III. Prof WILsoN-glorious old Christie
pher North, never spoke more truly than
when in abiding to the calumniators of
great men, he said - aaa rat
"But we refuse the counsels of those
who with the very breath of their war
ming would blight the wreath bound
round the head of the Muses. sons by
peoples gratitude in affected zeal
for religion and morality, have SO deeply
violated the spirit Of both, by vile misrep-
reservations, gross exagerations, and mer-
CHESS denunciations of the fraiities of our
common nature in illustrious men-meD
who in spite of their alterations more or
less deplorable, from the right path, were
not only in their prevailing moods dcvout
worshippers of virtue, but in the main
tenor of their lives exemplary to their
brethren 49, a.r
But a truce to this subject. We haze
moralized too far. Let Burns sleep in
his Scottish grave. He has proved that
POETRY is the highest earthly wisdom
and greatest earthly power. And while
human sympathies glow in human hearts,
ROBERT BURNS will be honored and low
ed, and tears will start when "HIGHLAND
MARY" is read or sung.