New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-01-25

farm of hundred acres, his pnians straus and
f sa state. his removal to Dumrles in l7s his exct
able and lie ea III The prudence Of the
ofce-holder and the impulses OF me poc and The
IT'S Of his conviva and his poetca nspra
lions These facts, with such poems ~ d rnsale
ves s SnH ON within him til death closed his caree.
July a. 1895. Painful as were me ~, tSe Lat per
ns1 1 S Rs duties Instructed children carefully
long be had strength 1 Knew his essential worth
He had one stately tribute to his memory. Inc wnE,s
& hnrne 70 the crave from Town Hail. and me
great funeral procession marcned .UY rv half mile
long, ON The way 10 the ground He died OWING
the world $780, and the world oWlnR hini '' "
every year Is summing up.
BURSss CHARACTER
For three-quarters Of century since Ms uea'h ''
ewes o critics and morasts have been turned more ana
more upon the life OF Burns and every ract tha
him az o man seems to have been brought 10 hgh' no
himself helped the scrutiny for he lived without reserve
or Disguise and his simplicity and frankness were
which any body could cast sharp eyes OF
throw hard stones My impression is that the estimate
OF the essential worth and characteristic purpose ana
thought Of the man has been .p % the mos
biography Of Chambers saves tne Pest sn nou
tSat certain idolaors have INDUCED ln II shows him to
have been full kindness and truth, wiling 70 make
% Conscience oT and for education champion Of
the oppressed friend OF the poor ana never %
told Them fully himself bitterly na la% Pc. Ii, them
ea ri testimony in favor Of the strict and
narrow path from which he sometimes devlaieu. hs
in connection with his neghborhood and age and they
that he i worthy Of blame than Of pity and won.
der" not "gulter than the average perhaps less
guilty than one Of ten thousand"
He was not O well-balsnced character, az we have
already hined and much OF his trouble as he himself
ideal and his senses warred fearfuy against the high
Instincts Of his soul and the weakness OF ms Will tat
Tremendous pride that, sometimes in his crushing
objected to take pay for o a %a W.hsd ItS TO
make money out OF his pen. a., o. .o, 1t, .o
But DO NOT % apr wbrS he was one
Of the great representative men, was by emlnence
eS ss Gt Ss Century e
tion|not for the balance of political party power
OF oranse-but for the essential rights Of man. Robert
Burns, in his way liberty man OF the eighteenth
revolutionary Split but in himself revolution Such
men are not usually very mild or welbalanced and ne
had something OF tho restless and stormy temper OF his
time He had something OF that quarrel with the social
Of his IT, time when Taar With s mt So
his famous play Of the Robbers and which Goethe who
a snaea and 9a
chains Of custom and the bars OF etiquette and ne evil
Revolution hut he never for moment had respect
for the mob spirit and he lived long enough to make
with law that lie not OF the school OF Robesperre
but of Washington and we have before US OF
an unfinished poem Of his the birthday OF the man
whom we Americans more aud more eau the rather Oh
our Country. -
In religion he shared in the agitaons Of his age and
had a pretty sharp quarrel with the leading clergy
around him. yet he has left the most charming and endur
ing mortal OF the old Scotch orthodox piety that has
ever given and his opponents should pardon the
hits the Holy Fair and other satires for the
exquisite beauty and winning devotion Of the COter's
Saturday Night. have looked with care through
@ of Inc Sacred name Of or savior nor Of de-
NAL OF his divine mission and peerless perfection lie
pressy and repeatedly declared his need Of positive
supernatural revelation and accepted Christianity as
devout sentiment than any very deep study sat
sfactory thinking, but In this he was very much like the
his structures on them Even the elegant and scholarly
Hugh Blair who over Sne m eap9
there did the scotch peasants scrutiny which
3m as Gead Se S Sds SS D1 IN beo
ogy now estimate that noted man. who was, Burns
ter He was not satisfied by such easy preachers as
Blair and he to have been less convinced by such
ferocous liberals Thomas Paine, whose works Burns
owned, but whose basphemous rbaldry was never
to the poets mind 1t is pity that he had not known "S
Wesley preach, and Charles Wesley sing or Bishop But
Ter set forth the true rotations Of human nature to divine
grace. -
There Is no such song his, and all that say
is that such is the fact and the lily is fair to
4,
evening star ia peace the troubled SOUL is Robert
Burns's music TO mankind God meant It to be
and so IL was. This is about all We know Of the
cause. The songs which gave him his peerless
fame indeed written to familiar airs or melodies
genius has breathed through them, and the masters
touch song upon the harp or organ, puts strange
fire and witching beauty into airs that before were
commonplace under ordinary hands 1t is mystery
how melodies originate and nobody can tell when the
most universal and memorable OF them began for
the great national anthems hymns and battsongs are
set melodies older than the words. Even when the
the ar OF Bonnie Doom" which came OF itself
who touching dreanily the black keys or semtones
OF piano,1 the explanation does but emphasize the
mystery, and can only say that melodies come as all
no thoughts and hne faneies comeess OF our striving
by unseen powers Never did any man more to bring out
and enrich popular airs than Burns They came to him.
the common brepZes TO the mountains OF
Hymettns, with its thousands OF flowers and swarns OF
bees and they left him those breezes LEFT Hymettus
laden with LAGRANGE and carrying their charmed sweet
on the wings OF the wind.
"PRoPHET NEW AGE"
He may in a certain sense, he called prophet Of
the coming, and calling, alike by his weakness
and his power for better of the human affections
and higher and camer OF poetic and artistic
genius.
In his very defects there is certain promise that
Others will be happier because of his example of suffer
ing and aspiration The tragic element in his life is wit
alike OF his shortcomings striving for better
things Dyine at 81 he passed away just AS his genius
should have ripened for its best fruits and Schiller who
specS, ike him. wrote his greatest poems during the
eight years In which be survived Burns. IL Is easy to
work some lay Of William wallace or drama Of Robert
Bruce Mary Stuart, that would have put his name
in what they and in what they failed to he, plead
from sharing in sorrows and dsappontments That
his heart was almost broken by the rude jar between ms
that the times were out OF joint and redemption must be
near.
CnMner who survived him ahnnt four xears. suffered