The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-05-16


The chief quality of Burns is the
sincerity of him. SO in his poetry. So in
his life. The song he sings is' not of
fantasticalities; it is of thing felt,
really there; the prime merit of this,
Of all in him, and Of his life generally is
truth. The life of Burns is what we
call a great tragic sincerity, not cruel,
far from that; but wild, wrestling naked
with rhe truth of things. In that sense
there is something Of the savage in all
great men.
Although there is much in the private
life Of Burns that we cannot commend,
yet when we attempt TO judge his life.
come down to measure the man, we cam
not balance the scales so nicely as with
other men. We find a nature far differ
ent from the ordinary. There is that in
him, whether imbued from the stern pow
erty of his early life or the state of
society with which he was brought into
contact or from some warning element
in his own being, we cannot say, but GER
tain il is that he was vanquished in the
battles he fought against his own ma
ture.
1T is easy" saws William Winter. Ito
Judge and condemn the sins of weak.
passionate humanity; but when We think
of such creatures as Edmund Kean and
Robert Burns we ought to consider what
demons in their own souls those wretch
ed men were forced 10 fight and by what
errors
With broad and deep sympathy for hu-
man kind in all their misfOrtunes, with
singular compassion and pity for the
fate of bird, and beast, and flower, yet
at the same time Burns lacked that ele-
ment Of character that enables one to
overcome temptation and trial and to
conquer the warning passions tina are
found within the breast Of every earth
born child. He does not seek TO con-
ceal his own infrmities, he does not fear
to reveal them, and it is this truthful
sincerity of the man that we admire"
We must recognize how much there was
in his own nature to cope against, and
how very weak he was to withstand the
influence of environment and his own
vacillating nature. In judging such a
soul we can do no better than TO apply
his own words as addressed TO the
"Unco' Good"
Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentier, sister woman,
Though they may go a kennin' wrang,
To step aside is human.
Who made the heart, tits He alone
Decidedly can try US;
He knows each chord, its various tone,
Each spring-its various bias.
Then at the balance let's be mute.
We never can adjust it,
What's done we partly can compute,
But know not what's resisted.
The soul OF man is an intricate piece
Of mechanism inclosed in a perishable
casket. To measure the nights and
depths of its lodgings and aspirations,
its sorrows and joys. 10 understand the
trials and temptations that assail il,
that are overcome or in turn conquer,
and thus bear down the soul into the
sOrdid dust and mire to Judge of what
is done and what resisted-this is indeed
far moro than can be accomplished by
human intellect. There is One. only
one. He who rules the clouds and the
planets, the earth and the children there
Of who has dominion over all things
He alone can measure the human heart.
peer into its secret chambers and find
out the inner man.
With readers in general. With men Of
right feeling anywhere. we are not re-
quired to plead for Burns. In plying
admiration he lies enshrined in all our
hearts in a far nObler mausOleum than
hat one Of marble; neither will his
works. even as they are, pass away from
the memory Of man. While the Shaks-
peares and Millions roll on like mighty
rivers through the country of thought,
bearing fleets of traffickers and assdu-
Gus pearl-hshers on their waves this lit
tie ValcluSa fountain will arrest our
eve: for this is also of natures own and
most cunning workmanship, bursts from
the depths of the earth with a full, gush-
ing current into the light of day: and
often will the traveller turn aside to drink
Of its clear waters and muse among its
rocks and pines.
How sweetly our own ''Hoosier laure-
ate" sings of Burns, whom he resembles
more than any other writer that has
come after him:
Sweet singer. that I lo'e the maist
o. ony. sin wi eager haste
smacket bairn-lps over the taste
I hail thee. though a blessed ghaist
In heaven lang!
In fancy. as wi dewy cen
part the clouds aboon the scene
Where thou vast born, and peer atween,
/ see nae spot
In a the Hollands half sac green
And unforgot!
I see nae stored castle hall.
WI banners fiauntin' over the wall,
And serf and page in ready call,
Sac grand to me
As ane puir cotters hut, wi all
Its poverty.
There where the simple daisy grew,
Sac bonnie sweet, and modest. too,
Thy liltin' filled its wee head flu
O. sic grace,
It aye is weepin' tears O. dew
WI drOopit face.
Frae where the heather bluebeus fling
Their sangs O. fragrance to the spring,
To where the laverOck scars to sing,
Still lives thy strain.
For a the birds are twittering
Sang like thine ain.
And aye. by light o. sun or moon,
BY banks o. Ayr, or bonnie Doom,
The waters lit nae tender tune
But sweeter seems
Because they poured their limpid rune
Through a thy dreams.
WI brimmin' lip. and laughin' e'e,
Thou shoOkest even Grief wi glee,
Yet had nae niggart sympathy
Where sorrow bowed,
But gavest a thy tears as free
AS a thy gOwd.
And sac il is we lO'e thy name
To see il beeze wi sic a flame.
That a pretentous stars O. fame,
Maun bling asklent,
To see how simple worth may shame
Their brightest CLIENT.
Helen Hunt jackson closes her ''Burns's
Pilgrimage" with the following beautiful
and tender lines, and the reader will
pardon the writer for using them, for he
can find no better with which TO close
this article:
Does he think sadly, even in heaven
how differently he might have done by
himself and Earth if Earth had done for
him then a 1.-THE of what it does now?
Does he know it? Does he care? And
does he listen, when, in lands he never
saw. great poets sing OF him in words
simple and melodious as his own.
For now he haunts his native land
AS an immortal youth. His hand
Guides every plOW.
He sits beside each ingle nook,
His voice is in each rushing brook
Each rustling bough.
"His presence haunts this room tonight.
A form of mingled mist and light