National Republican., 1876-01-26
,uld make the pulse beat faster or the eye grow
1T hter than tie simnle mention Of the poet,s

po Ainuieu W 1.S
Of Burns. [Applsuse.J You may inscribe their
names high as you will on the scroll of human
Ius hs
above that Of Sir Walter Scott, the mighty mon
arch OF the human heart.
Who on minds high steep could stand
And marshal with his sceptered hand
The whirlwind and the cloud,
And write name too bright to die
In lightning traces on the sky. [Applauss.l
The secret source Of that mysterious magnet
affection Of the Scottish heart to the deathIess
memory Of their country's poet, and which Will
abate no iot of its rssistless power while Ben
Leonard stands or the Tweed rolls onward to the
sea, lies far deeper than the
MERE SENTIMENT
of national pride, passionate pride. 1t is not
because he delighted to delineate, in their own
shades Of Scottish feeling or the pecuiiaritles Of
thoughts and manners exhibited in the life of the
Scottish peasant. 1t is not because his graphic
pictures Of moral life, his marvellous descriptions
Of local scenery, his resistless burst of rarest
humor, and the radiant brilliancy Of MS inimita-
Bile flashes OF wit are all tingsd IN every Inca.
gave him birth and deathless love for his native
heath. 1t is not for any Of these reasons alone,
occupies the first and highest placs In the alice
tops Of his countrymen.
Scotland, but the poet OF humanity everywhere I!
lApplause.l It is because he preserved as no
other poet ever did the universal alchemy of
genius WEIGH enRDleQ MIN 10 DrlnR TO HRQL LQo
pure virgin gold in every thing he touched. 1t is
because there is not single fibre In the heart Of
any human being which cannot be touched in
muse. muse L L i: because the majestic soul exhibited
In his artless lays was as expansive as his race.
LAPplauEe,l As have seen It somewhere said
of him. Born in obscurity, reared in adversely,
rejoicing in the smiles OF nature, and scorning
THE FRowNs OF FORTUNE,
he lived and died the poet Of the people-the
great unnumbered masses who eat their humble
hroa fr@ @HA fnfN l,aN- hapn haas
[Applause.l Other great poets had their own
peculiar eScellences. Milton awed by sublime
ss IL
and more diversified philosophy. Byron chal.
Ienged admiration BY bolder and wilder flights
alone and peerless in painting the joys and the
sorrows the agones and the transports Of the hum
BILE sphere in which he moved. or all lyric poets
and the most touching, and, to his own class, the
truest and the most eieyaiing; IApPlausel Aye,
syae bs yOSs AZ Rsg
gsrs." He will never cease to point his pharsai-
cal fnger at "honest Tam O'Shanter'' and "Son-
that Whenever he fecars to the scene at "Poosie
NRpcies," when willie brewed peck a. maui,
an Rab an Allan cam to see" he viii turn up
the whites OF his pious eyes in holy rapture"
and exclaim:
IS 1 bless and praise thy matchless might,
When thousands thou has left in night,
That am here afore thy sight
A turnin' and . shinin' light
To a. this place.
THAT am here, chosen sample,
To chow thy grace is great and ample;
Strong as Q rock;
A guide, buckler and example
To a. thy flock"
Yet there is a fervid piety pervadIng every line
canting hypocrites arc as utterly ignorant as tho
Inbabitant of the fartbest hill top Of Nova Zem-
ea Is Of the peris%es zsphy5: sha. sigh through
and applause There is purity OF sentiment, q
refinement Of feeling and a delicacy Of thought
flower" Of which such thin-blooded, hollow
hearted, soulless shams have no more conception
than milestone has Of the sublimest symphonies
When speak Of the elevatlDg influence Of Burns
poetry, however, l DO not allude simply to those
marvellously beautiful scintillations Of thought
or those exquisitely delicate expressions of re-
hned and ennobling sentiments which are found
scattered like unstrung diamonds through almost
everything that ever emanated from his pen, but
TO the
DIGNITY OF THE MANHOOD
which beams out of almost every line he ever
He has been called the poet of the poor. Not
because he spent his genius in piteous waillng for
the hartships and niseries OF the millions whose
lives are doomed to 4 ceaseless round of toll; not
because he taught them to repine at their condi-
toD, nor yet TO despise or envy the advantages of
rank and wealth and culture; bu; because he
Of their own nature, ana TO stand erect in the
lima ge Of their Creator. [Applause.l 1t is this
Sems ph tns sTand pivotal IDEA in AL
the poet CT humanity everywhere: and renders
his name and memory sacred, not only with his
whole souled men everywhere.
There is another particular In which Burns has
Sssn TaTs II ssuaisS and q Which
men and 10 every grade Of the human intellect
Imean- its aphorist.c character.the wealth Of
packages. For example, out Of the innumerabie
Instances which might be cited, what could pos.
sibly be more expressive OF the utter uncertainty
of all human calculations thar his simple line:
The bsst-laid schemes Of mice and men gang
aft agley:"
Where can be a more singing rsbuke to human
vanity and selfconceit than in his oftquotsd
ejaculation
'Uh, wad some power the giftie gle US
To see eursels as ithers see us?"
In the simple power Of word painting-no, not
painting, but that marvellous faculty Of protuc-
ing real life picture by few rapid strokes of his
magic pencil-Burns was never. approached by
any other poet that ever lived on earth. As an
o. fa M pas p hs
single sketch from his almost illmitablc GAL
lery. Take, for instance, a single verse from the
address "to haggis:"
His knife see rustic abor digit,
And cut the up wi ready slight,
Trenching thy gushing entrails bright
Like ony ditch:
And, then, Oh what glorious sight,
Warm, reekin, rich!
Can't you see the delicious, tempting dish,
steaming before? Does not the delightful odor it
exhales upon the surrounding air make your very
mouth water? Laughter Then see the auld
guidman and his "buirdly cheels, armed with
their horn spoons, rushing 10 the attack:
Then horn for horn they stretch an strive,
Dell tax the hinmost; on the drive
TIL alltheir weel elswalled kytes belyoe
Are bent like drums:
And auld guidman maist like to rive,
BE thankit huns
Why, Tennyson's world.renowBsd description
of the charge OF the six hundred At BIlakIaya
cannot compare with it.
There is Yet another peculiarity in which Burns
stands without a parallel in the annals of poetic
Literature, ard that is in the simple, unaffected
which crops cut in almost every sentence that
flowed from his untutored pen. need go no
further for an illustration OF this than the very
poem from which have just quoted, where he
contrasts the child OF affiuence, reared on dainty
viands, and the hardy, hsggis fed peasant of his
native heather. Look at this picture:
"PcOr devil: See him over his trash,
As feckless as o uithered rash:
His spindle-shanks quid whit lash,
His niere nit!
The bloody floods are fields to dash.
Oh, how unfit!
But mark the rustic, haggis-fed.
The trembling earth resoudds his tread.
cap in his Talie hand blade
He'll max It whsle;
And legs ard arms and heads will sned
Like tops o. thrissle"
Nevertheless, as have already said, mankind
will never consent that Burns shall be monopo.
lizsd by q single nation. Humanity loves and
claims him. Vast as would be the chasm In the
literature Of his own country If the glorious off,
spring Of his genius were stricken from II, yaster
still would be the void in the universal heart Of
man if tho wide space filled BIZ the memory Of
Burns weuld be empty-a memory which will
grow brighter and vet brighter until time itself
shall TAX { Id as doh q garment, and the heavens
be rolled together as q scroll.
At the conclusion Of Mr. knott's speech Gen.
Bal'oth, upon invitation sang the Scottish songs,
"Jack O'HsZeldean" and Jennie, with the light
brown hair"
The floor was then cleared, and tho hours given
up TO dancing.
AMUSEMENTS.