The herald., 1894-01-25


how tenderly he sympathized with
them.
Among all the poets who ever wrote
of the humorous side OF life among the
humblest class OF people-the vaga-
bonds-Burns has but one equal. Com
pared with the humor of Burns, that of
Rabelais ia coarse and brutal. The hu-
NOR of Pistol, Nym and Bardolph, of
Mrs. Quickly and Doll Tearsheet. alone
can be compared with the set who met
when
t'Ae night at cen merry core
o. raudie, gangrel OtIes
In Posie Nansie's held the sp ore
To drink their ora duddies:
WI quaffing and laughing
They ranted and tney sang;
WI jumping and humping
The vera gridle rang"
Ofcourse it ia impossible that another
Falstaff could be created.
So boundless Yves the sympathy that
filled the great heart OF Burns that il
extended beyond humanity, and it WAS
not in jest but in real earnest that
he wrote:
"But fare ye weel, auld Nickie-benl
wad ye tax thought and men
Ye abins might oinna ken
Still have a stake.
Pm wac to think upon your den,
Even for your sake"
II Burns wers certain that no human
soul should ever go to perdition, he
would abolish hell even for Satan's sake.
That Burns was not exempt from his
share of human weakness is true, but
"-Y e wha are sac guild yourself
. Sac pious and sac hoiy,
Ye've naught to do but mark and tell
Your neighbors faults and folly.
Tear me We venerable core
AS counsel for poor morsals,
That frequent pass doues Wisdom's door
For glalket folly'B portalgl
"Discount what scant occasion gave
That purity ye pride in,
And (what's Mt mair than a. the laye&
Your better art o. hiding.
"Think when your castiga ed pulse
Gives now and then n wallOp,
What ragings must his veins c0nvulse
That still eternal gallop
zone point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do Il;
And just as lamely can We mark
How far perhaps they rue 1t.
"who made the heart, tits He alone
Decidedly can try u.s.
He knows each cord-its various tone,
Each spring-its various bias.
Then at the balance let's BE- mule;
We never can adjust 1T;
What's done We pa tly may compute,
But know not what's resisted"
With all reverence let it be said that
these lines suggest what the greatest of
all teachers offered in excuse for an I'M
fortunate sinner:
'If she hath sinned much, she hath also loved
much"
In pure poetic fancy A Midsummer
Nights Dream alone excels, or equals,
The Vision.
A great mind is always conscious of its
own power and worth; but it is only in
The Vision that Burns expresses openly
his own consciousness of his genius.
The whole poem is in the highest strain
os poetic eloquence. In the last stanza
Cola, his tutelary genius, advances,
"And wear thou this" she smiling said,
And bound the holly round my head:
The polished leaves and berries red,
DID ru Il ng pay:
And, like passing thought she fed
In light away.
Space will not permit of quotations
from Tam O'Shanter, that wonderful
poem which ranges from broad humor
to sublimity; which fills us with awe at
one instant and with horror the next;
which contains touches OF keenest satire
and piercing insight into human char
acter.
On every battls field and every bloody
deck the past hundred years, the blood
OF Scotchmen-and brave men whether
Scotch or not-has gIowed within them,
fred by the heroic strain,
"scots wha haze VII W llace bled
Scots wham Bruce has often led,
Welcome TO your CORY bed,
Or to victory"
Had Fadladeen been suffered to 90 on
and ''conHider all the poems that have
ever been written" he would not have
ionnd one like The Cottar's Saturday
Night. A much wiser critic than the
worthy cham berlain might have TO
search far without finding another
people that could be made the subject
OF such poem. The nearest approach
in literature to the home OF the Cottar
is that OF Doctor Primrose in
The Vicar OF Wakefield. but this is 30
weak that our admiration OF the charac
tiers is not without trace of contempt
Tor their wan OF strength. The Got
tar" the real man. William Burns. is
vastly nobler character than the
ideal, simple, pedantic monogamist
Doctor Primrose. In strength OF mind
dignity OF character, purity OF soul, I'M
selhsh devotion to duty, the "Cottai
strongly resembled another man ther
living, one OF the greatest who eve
walked on Washington.
From scenes like these old scotia's grandeu
sprn s,
That makes, her loved at home revered
abroad"
But this article has already run t.
much greater length than was intended
Il these quotations and brief remark
shall win attention from even one ap,
preciative mind not ALREADY familiar
with tbs poetry of Burns, rae purpose