The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-27

to himself. He was his own worst en-
envy. We need not recount his faults
we all know them, but let it be said
to his credit that he was conscious Of
them, that he confessed them, that he
regretted them deeply. His was thor
oughly sincere spirit. He had sympa-
thy for others, he yearned for sympa-
thy for himself Here is a snatch from
poem to his child. 1t is so manly in
its acknowledgment of past sin, it is
so frank in recognizing his weakness,
as to appeal to US greatly.
He hopes that the child may have
Thy mither's person, grace and merit,
And the poor, worthless daddy's spirit,
Without his failures
This complete consciousness of short
comings goes a long way in making us
pass charitably over the less worthy
part of Burns life. If he had been
bad when pretending to be good, If
there had been the trace of the hypo-
critic about him, we would find it hard
to forgive him. But when a man who
is sorely tempted yields and acknowl-
edges his fault freely but sorroWfully
to the world, then our common human
ity softens our Judgments You will
remember these lines in Burns "Ad-
dress to the Unco Guild, or the Rigidly
Righteous us take them to heart:
Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woFrian;
Though they may gang a kennin
wrang,
To stop aside Is human;
One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do it,
And just as lamely can We mark
How far perhaps they rue it,
1t is not then for us to pass in judg-
ment upon the shortcomings of the
poet as man. Rather is it for us to
call to mind how deeply he lamented
his own faults and how he begged men
to leave the Judgment to God. AS he
himself said:
who made the heart, tits He alone
Decidedly can try u.s.
Burns was right. We can only little
understand the temptations of another
but we can sympathize with one who
felt so strongly the power of evil over
him. as to pray in his song:
With that controlling power assist
ev'n me.
Those headlong furious passions to
confine,
For all unfit I feel my powers to be
To rule their torrent in the allowed line
o aid me with thy help, Omnipotence
Divine!"
Surely there is no note of hypocrisy
there, but the entreaty of passionate
soul, conscious of weakness and sin,
for the power of resistance which
comes from God. l emphasize this in
justice to Burns memory to show his
consciousness of sin, his dependence
upon higher power to save him from
it. He strikes an honest, manly note,
when taking all blame upon himself. he
frankly makes a clean breast of his
faults. Here is sentence which brings
out the same point, taken from letter
to Mr.. Aiken:
20 thou great, unknown God, thou
Almighty God! Who has lighted up
reason in my breast, and blessed me
with Immortality! / have frequently
wandered from that order and regular
ity necessary for the perfection of thy
works yet thou hast never left me nor
fOrsaken me-"
And SO, fellow sons of Caledonia, we
in the New England which has so
much in common with the old land,
may we'll honor the memory of Robert
Burns. His love for Scotland was deep
and true and his devotion to and rep
Es,Is - Alb. Il.
life, was sympathetic and loving. Even
his one great line Of weakness has it's
brighter side, for far from hiding sin
hypoCritically, or Haunting it boastfuI-
ly, he confessed it manfully and begged
of God forgiveness and of man char
ity. We may we'll give him the last,
especially when we remember our debt
to him as an interpreter of the life of
our forefathers and as the singer of
melodious, as to awaken Joy in any
human breast.
Let me close with a verse from his
Epistle to John Lapraik:
Il am nae Poet, in a sense,
But just a Rhylner like, by chance,
And hae to learning nae pretence
Yet, what the matter?
Whene'er my Muse does on>nne glance,
jingle at her.
Yes, he iingled and jingled so natur-
ally, so truly, so merrily, that we still,
after one hundred years i'll q different
land, love to hear his joyous songs.
They warm our hearts. They transport
US as by magic to the old Countrywide