Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-03-24
fFor THE WASHINGTON SrA1.
ROBERT BURNS.
BY BEN DOUGLAS.

Virtues or frailties of man after he In dead than
when he Is living is one of the eccentricities of
human nature. 1t Is too often the usage to en-
certain eoldly or depreciate him In his sphere Of
thought and activity on earth, and then to plant
laurel. weave cypress, and build above him
granite shafts when dead. Great deeds NAV
and do, make heroes, but too frequently the
hero must die and be transplanted In another
Soil unconscious of his fame, before the slow
recognizing world comedies it, or applauds
Hence, faithfully portrayed obituaries are, in
many instances, the keynotes to worldly appre-
citation; hence, the ministerial echo. 'dust to
dust, may be the sOundings Of the first note in
the gamut OF great renOwn. Why
this propensity to postpone respect, to procras-
innate honor, to economic affection for the
pageant of funeral procession Are the races
and peoples so heartless that they must make
truce with conscience by bestowing upon the
dead the veneratien denied them when they
stood erect with men {! Is it not by some me-
tempsychOsis of rational casuistry that We seek
TO compensate our feelings for our neglect by
rearing monuments and magnificent mimic
mockeries over them after they have ceased to
groan under 1.-THE fardels of weary life p
Will 1t be refuted that this failure to recog-
niZe sterling merit and Heaven-descendcd gifts
has been refused to the most illustriOus cham
piODs in the empire of human thought?
Was it given to Shakespeare to Know of his
shining the divinity ofthe gods and debating with
the eloquence of the stars? One hundred years
OF peaceful grave-sleep swept over him ere the
world was conscious of the transcendant radi-
atiOns OF his luminous and gigantic mind.
Was it given to Milton-the blind Milton-.'the
bard of immortal subjects'-to know of his
pOsthumOus appreciation and immortality when
''Paradse Lost produced no startling effects,
won no admiring mtatOrs. causing no material
changes in the poetic habits of the age, and
VI is for >isrt,
three generations remained unrescued from an
apparently portentous oblivion?
Happily for our bard. old Scotias sweetest
singer. the Inspiration of his genius was inter-
preted. and its impress upon his age and coun-
frymen felt ere he had accomplished the brief
pilgrimage of his years. The poet of nature, he
lives not in the dazzling rays of heroic or tragic
spiendOr, like Homer and Shakespeare. yet. as
much as they. has he communicated to the Ian
gua@e and Thought OF his compatriots and
mankind. Born in midwinter. in q lowly cot
tage, our peasant from the banks of Doom"
first saw the light of day. the date OF which he
thus grotesquely' mentions:
Our monarch's hindmost year but ane
Was f1ve-and-twenty days begun,
Twas then blast of Janwar' WIN
Blew hansel In on Robin"
From his advent into the world until his dis
mssal therefrOm, 80 years after. the twins
of Janwar" never ceased to blow upon him.
and upon his cottage roof. the gardens he titled,
the fields he ploughed, the excise office. in the
the haunts OF vice. the companionship of lords
and ladies. in the computations of remOrse and
In the eXatation OF public gorif1catiOn, his feet
were ever upon the slippery ways of the ice and
SHOWS of winter IN the hiatus. spanned by these
two dates of Birth and Death there rose, and
burst. and flashed, and corruscated. aud expired
q most weird and wonderful life From the
squallOr of poverty and obscure origin. our poet.
In these f1eeting years. achieved the Pisgah sum-
NIT of a proud though unsymmetrical fame
nnlOUiyp1 nd fho ifuI
then despisedl When but a boy he was not
deemed by his teacher, Mr.. Murdoch as bright
and receptive as his older brother, Gilbert yet
he evinced capacity Of quick acquisition, and
was withal a most promising youth. His edu-
cation commenced at very early PERIOD and
with astonishing celebrity he acquired prof.
cheney in his elementary studies, to which was
added familiarity with the French and Latin
and the elements of geometry and surveying
He rapidly expanded into a gOrmandizer of
books. the biographies of Hannibal and Sir VIM.
Wallace being the first to crafty the ambition
of his childhood; and these combined with col
lectiOns of old songs and fairy tales, together
with the seclusiOn of his rustic Iife were all
powerful to kindle his sensitive and passionate
nature to the Intensity OF song. and the stimu-
latiOn OF his fancy to flights of poetic sublimity
Though technically uneducated, he had an
education vast, prolific. Towering, comprehen-
sive and if he was not the champion of English
prose, he was most emphatically the master of
nOunces tie undisciplined severity of his inyec-
tive, his want of chiyalry, and designates him
as 'an unlettered rustic" he is compelled to
assign to him the rank of a great and original
genius. For, says he: ''He has in all his COM
positions great force, and great spirit and ami
nation in its expression. He has taken a large
range through the region of fancy and natural
lied himself tn almost all her climates. He has
great humor-great powers of description
great pathos. and great discrimination of char
acteT"
Prof Wilson. his chief bio FRA pher, pronounces
him by far the greatest poet that ever sprung
from the bosom of the people" Carlyle recOg-
nized him as true poet, "a man in whose
heart resides some eff1uence of wisdom, some
tone of the Eternal Melodies"
He fiOurished and wrote in an are the most
prOsaic in British history. A composer of verses
In Childhood, to what diZZier attitudes of emf
hence might he not have attained had he been
spared to maturer years. Literally his life was
without manhood or old age. and his writings
were little else than ga poor mutilated fraction
of what was in him." While his prose prOduc-
tions abound IN Numerous scintatiOns of
piquant humor, graceful imagery and native
eloquenee, his title TO fame will rest exclusively
upon his songs. And it cannot be denied that
he was the most graphic of all our poets and the
most intensely natural and poetic 1t rocked him
little what his subject was whether Lines
TO Poor Malie." or to THE Mountain Daisy" or
his phiiOsOphic introspectiOns on the destruction
vi ci the Heil mouse or his peer
less elegy TO Mary in Heaven" the same vein
OF sympathetic tenderness pervades and perme-
ates every line. Nature had lowered him with
her divinest gifts. and thus made compensation,
In part. for the rash waste of an uncontrolled
He In and epistle to Lapraik he said:
.'Ge me ae spark o. Natures fire.
That's a. the learning desire,"
and this he possessed i'm a lavish and bountiful
measure Heinvested every subject with a glow
Ing. luminous interest irrespective OF its num-
bleness. insigniflance and simplicity.
NO soul could sink beneath his love-
Not even angel blasted;
No mortal power could soar above
The pride that all outlasted."
Marathon, Blenheim, Pultowa. valmy. All
might remain forever uncrystalized but 1.-THE
Wounded Hare" and His Aud Mare Mag.
gle"
"Who pranced that day wP muckle pride as she
bure hlme his bonny BRIDE"
must be enthroned in pathetic song His poetry
diSTifed the PEASANTS home and it's lowly
scenes, for in their ranks he grew. in their soil
he yegctated. and his loving sympathies strength
ened and elevated them in their hours of penu-
~ and toll.
Prof. Wilson says that the peasantry exult to
know and feel that they have had such treasures
beoueathed TO them by one of themselves and
haf th, ha