The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-26
IN HONOR OF ROBERT BURNS
(Continued from Seventh Page.)


 dom m-loving nature and of the clear vii sion of the innate dignity and worth of | human nature which helped him to see that, with or without place or gear or polish, "a mans man for a that and | a that" He could not abide expressions 1 or oppressors; he could not abide the false standards that facetiouely exalted one and put down another, he could not abide unreasonable limitations, and 1t was this strong revolt of his great soul against tyranny of every sort that sometimes pushed him into defiance of opinions and customs eminently just and wholesome, and blemished his re- cord with weaknesses and foilies that embittered his life. He hated every thing mean anda servile. Superstition and hypocrisy could not stand before him. Canting clerics, tight-fisted elders, boosters whose lives were a scandal re- cognized in him a relentless foe, and the world has been on his side of the quar- rel But the man, however, humble or uncouth, or even unconventional in his life, who united to the Scottish spirit genuine manliness and honesty of pur- pose found in him staunch defender and friend, and here again the world is learning to range itself on his side.
 He has been called irreverent, was he? No essentially irreverent man could write the "Cotter's Saturday Night That poem not only throws halo around lowly life and homely tasks such that never henceforth can any true man despise them, but it breathes sympat thy with all things spiritual, with simple faith and honest worship, that can only be felt by one in whose soul the name God is sacred and the love of God is a master passion. Recall that scene as Burns pictures it:
 The cheerful supper done wi serious
 face,
 They, round the ingle, form circle
 wide;
 The sire turns oer wi patriarchal The big ha Bible, ance his fathers
 pride;
 And let us worship God' he says with
 solemn air.. Then,
 They chant their artless notes in sim
 pie guise;
 They tune their hearts, by far the
 noblest aim;
 Perhaps "Dundee's" wild -warbling
 measures rise,
 Or plaintive Martyrs" worthy of the
 name;
 Or noble "Elgin" beats the heaven
 ward flame,
 The sweetest far of Scotias holy lays"
 Then, "The priest-like father reads the sacred
 page, Then kneeling down, to heavens eternal
 king, The saint, the father, and the husband
 prays.
 No man without spiritual insight and | spiritual sympathy could feel the at- mosphere of such scene, or handle It's | detail with such reverent tenderness He | might go out that very night to bawl 1 bar-room ballads with his friends, but, that poem, the world | could never doubt the religious temper | of his mind. The song is the language | of his soul speaking out of its deepest | experiences and it's holiest faith, and | makes him in truest meaning the poet | of all who love and hope and trust.
 What is the secret of Burns hold upon | the universal heart? He had the quail ties of a true. leader--heat | and light, love and truth 1e was teacher and lover He not only threw clear light upon he common experiences of life and H. umined mans tortuous way, but be | vas one to whom men felt they could come to wram themselves. He not only | saw clear and thought straight but he vas filled with great human tenderness that made him the interpreter of our odgings and needs and the prophet of the better time. He knew disappoint- nent and loneliness and neglect; he had been misunderstood maligned, ostra- ,ised his poetry was born of his own 1eep experiences, and when men read it hey know that a heart is speaking to heir hearts, that they are behoding the record of the struggles of soul of like passions and sorrows with their souls.
 Burns never lectures; he never stands aloof and above to fling wise counsels 1t the heads of people he scorns. He is cynical and satirical but his very cyni- ,ism has cob in it, pathos that makes you sure it is the cry of a wound- d heart. Through all there is strain ,f strong tender manliness that sees the ruth, struggles toward 1t and longs to cad others into it's joy.
 It is this deep humanenees, this ten Ter sympathy with all mans ordinary experiences on the earth that fits one to cad and lift his fellowmen. One may and rhoralizel in the most correct and eloquent fashion and never ouch the heart or gladden. the life; one nay describe peasants life in homely phrase and set the world weeping. This is the quality that makes Burne your poet and my poet, the poet of all people, and enables him to do what he will with us The truths he caches are simple truths that have to To with mans commonest tolls and struggles and hopes, but they are the ruths We need to hear, and his tell ng of them makes us more truthful nen. He makes common events signi- icant and common life worth while. He inds the hidden flavor and beauty in he rudest things and the most un- people, and makes you long O come nearer the men and women who Ire toiling by your side Whoever does hat-whoever makes you aware of 'hu- nan worth and wakens a desire for