Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1894-01-31
PRoFEssoR CAmERoN,s ADDnEss

Is CO..
PROFESSOR CAMERON,s Address
Delivered at tho Recent Burma, An.
niversary Celebration In This City.
Below is given in the main the admira-
BILE address on Robert Burns. delivered at
the recent celebration by the Caledonian
club By Professor A. Guyot Cameron of
Yale 6hefasl Scientific school:
Ladies' and gentlemen of the New Ia
ven CaledoniAn club: There ID q Law of
language a. we'll as of literature by which
names stand As the symbols of epochs and
events and men. When, In the eighth cen-
tury, the Saracens sweep up from Spain
and cover the fertile fields of southern
France, Charles, the Duke, skaters their
invasion, and We hear, reverberating In the
halls Of history down to our own time, the
crashing strokes whose results have re-
chfistened him forever as Martel the Ham
mer. When, somewhat later, the oceans
became the prey of pirates, 1t was fitting
that the man who secured the seas and
fought this buccaneers of the Spanish Main
should have been Sir Francis Drake,
whose name symboliz.d the sweep, the
staying power, and the speed of the wild
duck that flies over the waves. But when
We turn to Sootlsnd and see Scott, the Scot()
of Scots, embodying In his very name the
essence of the country he has helped to
immortslize, and Knox. the theological
trip hammer, demolishing thrones. thun-
dsring against wickedness In high places,
crashing through creeds antagonistic to his
beliefs, blowing the blast by which fell
the walls of a political and Jesuitical Jeri-
90, and Burns, fiery in words as in name,
We can we'll say, Nature knew her busi-
ness and at least supsrficially, adapted
mans cognomen to his character.
There are two things with which the
mind of every Scotchman is steeped-his
especially If brought up on Presbyterian
pabulum, might be prepared to pass an
examination upon the hrst one, 1t Is
doubtful whether he could ever satisfy
any Scotchman about the second. But
you remember those lines sung by one of
the greatest Scotch poets:
.sBut when they see the blazing bale
The Camerons and Armstrong; never fail
and that, pride, of race at the cal, as well as
answer to the courtesy of your request, ex-
plains ones presence here to night.
Bat think Of the inspiration of the sub
ject. We are not here on an annual
pilgrimage to apotheos:zs Burns: He was
too human for that, nor would he have
wished worship. But 1t Is his humanity
which does bring us here. When N.poleon
the Great saw great Goethe, an enemy, and
the singer of German nationality as Burns
was of Scotch, as they parted, the two
greatest geniuses of their own or slmost
any age, the emperor said of the poet:
"There is q man" Aud it is because
Burns was a man, man touched with
like FEELINGS with y ourselves, that
the gems of his songs will find
a corresponding sparkle till latest times in
the eyes of every man. Aud the eye IL the
index of the soul. But Burns is more than
average man. The nineteenth century in
science and in art talks great deal about
types, and heredity, and lines of develop
ment. Burns illustrates this. He has
gathered into himself the lines of his ma
ton. He is the epitome of Scotland. It's
history and Its heroes; its war songs and
weird tales matching Its wild scenery; its
briggs and its braes, have all centred in
him. And az the eunpawder, represent
ing many forces and latent energy and
brilliant lights, explodes from the rocket
where 1t IL stored and colors the sky. 30
Burns burst in many oolored effects and
lit up the intellectual heavens. And as We
are soon to read in the clouds that which
we photograph upon them from the earth,
we may we'll say that Barns, in the pho
biography of poetry and the science of song,
long anticipated that process and, pro.
| shades upon the armament of art and
mind.
| There Is a very beautiful opera called
s.The Poet and Peasant" It might have
been Burns' own title. He has painted
for all times the poetry and the pathos O.
the Scottish psasantry. the greatest o.
whom he was. But he has done more
He has risen from repro ,enting class, tt
his country, and to continents, by inter
preting the spirit of broader things thar
contained in ore place. From whateve
point we look at Burns, his many sided
ness strikes US. Whot difference does
beautiful statue in the world is
shattered one. We wander by the frse
ments, wrought as by ths handiwork o
the demi-gods of Greece, or by the ruin
of Rome, and the fragments are fairer thai
the work of other men and times. Tn
doctrine that success always succeeds Ia
false one. There ia failure that mean
success. And 1t was go with Burns. Hi
personality may have failed of the high
est expression; he may have been sweI
by stormy passions aud torn and rent b
struggles and fortunes of soul stri1
ing for the better way 1t knew
forever ia the test, as it is the reward c
his worth. And whys Because of hi
qualities. The poet peasant is the equ:
Of peers and princes. ga mans a man fo
a. that" His proud Independence is pro,
erbial. He never did q mean thing. b
never did dishonest thing. With ever
temptation of grinding poverty he neithe
had nor left debts. Fame and fair nam
were moro to him than filthy lucre. An
1t is because Burns passes out of literature
living as that is, and ia life, that the spe
of his electric influence moves hI
manity. We all know sufficient
ness, his sympathy for animals, the spark
of celestial fire. that play around hi
head. Authors aud critics tell us all thu
We know bis songs from ''Scots VII
has" to the "Saturday night" We kno'
his love of the mountains and martii
achievements and minstrelsy of bis nation
But We need not to turn for interpreter
to any save Barns himself. We can fin
for ourselves the philosophy of lite, tn
music of every chord in the life of nstur
and the life of his nation. the gamut 9
human sympathy, the grief and laughte
and over them and in them and through
out them Burns' paramount ambition: st
sing Q song for Sootlsnd's sake" as he hs
for ever in those
l "Short swallow flights OF song
That alp their wings In tears and fly away"
But when We talk of Burns we must nc
forget what literature owes him as a guar
dian Of her ethics. Barber and Bin
Harry, Dunbar and Douglass, James til
First, down to Lindsay, Ramsay and Fol
guson had left heritage of Scottish son
that Burns followed as O climax. It VIZ
said of the French Shakespeare. Molier,
that he picked up the lead OF thought an
changed it to gold. So Burns picked q
Scottish song, purified it,freed 1t from th
roughness of coarser times and transmute
It into the gold that CLEANS not because {
any superficial sheen, but because it hs
the conditions of brilltancy In itself an
reflects the rays of the golden sun G
h genius.
But there Is another phase. Every ma
IL apt to see q suojsot through the msdiul
of his work or his preferences. Aud
seems to me that one points, point plea
ant to dwell upon-has never been sui
hciently emphasized. and that is, Scottia
and Burns affinity with that great countr
of intellect and charm-Francs. Frenc
politics may have, In past times, hurt I
we'll as helped Scotland But Scotlan
turned to France In difficulty and new
I e~Sy Al a. tlakf