The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-25
THE SCOTCH POETS ANNIVERSARY

Wherever, around this old globe,
there are Scots, today they will all be
found giving thought to the memory
of a wonderful child who came into this
life from that mystery, greater than
the one at which death stands guard,
1873 years ago this day. And it is not
alone men of Scottish blood in whose
affections Burns holds high seat, for
wherever the English tongue is spoken
there are men and women who feel
themselves akin to Scotia's poet by
virtue of his power to give that zone
touch Of nature" that makes the
whole world kin" This is the secret
Of the universal love Of the man who,
in a too brief life, sang the songs that
were mute in the hearts of the COM
mon people. Other poets have touch
ed the chords that vibrate only In the
intellect; Burns swept those which vi
brate in the universal heart.
Two Of his poems seem to stand
apart from the rest to give US another
view of this purely human man, this
Child Of nature" In Holy Willie's
Prayer" he concentrates his scorn for
the dogmatic theology that was then
so fiercely intolerant in his country,
that worshipped God
"Who as 1t pleases best Thysep,
Sends ane to heaven and ten to hell
A for Thy glory,
And ma for ony good or Ill
They done afore Thee"
This bold attack upon the cherished
doctrine of predestination indicates
courage in the poet that can be ap-
preciated only when one considers the
religious conditions that prevailed a
century ago: the narrow bigotry, the
impermeable prejudice, the intolerance
Of him who presumed to question the
infallibility of dogma. the social ostra-
cism visited upon him. Tom Paine
is but now emerging from the cloud
of obloQuy in which an offended the
ology enshrouded him. That Burns
suffered for his heterodoXy we may
we'll believe, but we cannot but admire
the courage of the man who braved it.
The other poem that presents q view
of his character different from that we
| see in either his pathos or his humor
IS the one in which he tenders coun-
sci to his young friend Andrew. who
is about to "try the world" There is
g. wisdom Of the world in it. a knowl-
edge of the lower depths as we'll as
| the elevations of human nature, Of the
pitfalls that beset the path Of the
young, that one would hardly expect
from the man who spent the greater
number of the few years Of his life on
the farm among the simple country
| folk: nor can one believe eAat he gath
cred 1t in the few years he spent
among the worldly ones of Edinburgh.
Withal there runs through it a per
ception of the value of the moraIities
gained. we may believe largely from
his own violation Of some Of them,
and we can understand that when he
warned his youthful friend against 9Th
! Illicit rove" because sit hardens the
within and petrif1es the feelings" he
spoke out Of a personal experience.
The injunction to gather gear by ev-
cry vile that's justified by honor
states the only true purpose of all
wealth gathering in the glorious privi-
lege" it gives Of "being independent
And in the closing advice, that Andrew
"recke the rede as neer did the ad-
wiser" appears again that contempt
for hypocrisy which would not toll
crate self-shelter behind the moral
counsels he had given the lad. But
his very weaknesses tended to make