The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1884-08-18
THE SCOTTISH BARD.
Unwilling BURNS MONUMENT.
rho Thames the Mirror Of a Deferred Tri-
hute-The Sweet Singer Recognized
by BrittOns-Lord Rosebery's
EuIogy-other Services.

Lord Rosebery at the recent unwilling
If the Burns monument on the Thames
Embsnkment, London, after saying that
the stamp of that indefinable entity
which, is called genius rests more unmis-
takably on the forehead of Robert Burns
than on either that of Scott or Knox,
Scotland's other great men, claimed that
he is worthy to rank among the greatest
poets of the world. "Why l claim this
place for Burns is this" he said, "that
he was the poet of nature and humanity.
He raised the conception of the peasant
and gave honor and dignity to toll. 1t
is for that reason that all the laboring
classes and masses of the world have
found in Burns their truest interpreter
and their truest friend; and it is
as that friend and as that inter-
prefer that l do claim for him
place in the innermost inches of the
temple of flames.
think that those who consider that his
humble occupation AS aploughman and
as u farmer was against the great career
of Burns were somewhat mistaken in
that belief. 1t is true, strangely enough,
that he belonged to that very class, the
entranchisenent of which is being dis
cussed at this moment: but i believe
that, given his original genius, given
the original bent of that genius, though
| believe he would have made name
for himself in any capacity, that the fol-
lowing of the plough was a distinct adj
vantage to Robert Burns, that it gave
him those opportunities for long medita-
ton and long communion with nature
which he turned to so rich an account
afterwards. Not merely that; it
invigorated his physical strength, and
he was enabled after all the labors of the
day to shake off his physical fatigue and
to give his evenings to posterity. Now,
that leads me to say one thing more,
and | shall not detain you more than a
few minutes. 1t is this: That the adj
mirers of Burns are divided into two
classes-those who wish to know his
poems alone and who wish to know
nothing of his life, and those, to whom
myself belong, who consider that the
life and the individuality of Burns can
not be separated from the genius of his
work. | will take this argument to test
my position. 1t is this: That if
those poems now existed and we
knew nothing whatever about their
author we should be making every
eXertiOn and straining every nerve to
raise the curtain which concealed the
unknown author from us. We should
cherish every detail, however bad it
might be, that told us something of the
man. Just as, in minor manner, we
delight i'll knowing that Shakespeare
was poacher, we should not be turned
away from any detail which told us what
the man was who gave us those inn
mortal poems. | have just reterredt o
the very painful character of part of
Burns life. | think great deal too
much has been made OF that; but / do
say of those errors-and many of them
were noble errors-that they were the
generous faults Of a generous mind, and
that we do not love the poetry the less
for the feeling that he was not altogether
removed from our lower humanity,
and when we know there was dis
tress and disaster enough in that great
and melancholy career. 1t was little
for Burns to find his death in a snow
wreath when he lived so long in the
cold shadow Of the worlds contempt
and neglect. 1t was not much for him
to die so young. He died in noble com
pany, for he died at the age which took
away Raphael and Byron-the age
which Lord BeacOnstield has called the
fatal age of thirty-seven. After all, in
life's breath. Some drain il in deer
signs and make an end; some draw it in
quick draught and have done with
it; and some draw it placidly through
four score years; but genius as rule
makes quick work with it. 1t crowds u
lifetime into few brief years and then
passes away, as if glad to be delivered
OF its message to the world and glad to
be delivered from an uncongenial
sphere. Byron and Burns together
hardly more than exceeded those three
score and ten years which are said to
fulfil the life of man; but none will deny
that they had lived their full life, that
they had done the full work which was
appointed them to do; and we have nc
right to repine in view of so much
achievement, if TO the outward and mere
mortal eye they did not seem to live
T. cir full tale of years. They had eX
haustcd human frame and human hap
pineSs, and it was time for them to be
gone.n