a part of his large heart and understanding. All the more considerate nature of Burns speaks in the following Epistle to a Young Friend, dated May, 1786: I lang hae' thought, my youthfu' friend, 2 A something to have sent you, But how the subject-theme may gang 6 I'll no say men are villains a' ; The real, hardened wicked, Wha hae nae' check but human law, Are to a few restricked; 8 But oh! mankind are unco weak, If self the wavering balance shake, Yet they wha fa' 10 in fortune's strife, A man may hae an honest heart, Though poortith 12 hourly stare him; Aye free aff han' 15 your story tell, 17 Frae2 critical dissection; The sacred lowe" o' weel-placed love, But never tempt the illicit rove, Though naething should divulge it: To catch dame Fortune's golden smile, And gather gear by every wile The fear o' hell's a hangman's whip To haud the wretch in order; But where ye feel your honour grip, But when on life we 're tempest-driven- A correspondence fixed wi' heaven Adieu, dear, amiable youth! Your heart can ne'er be wanting; In ploughman phrase, "God send you speed," And may you better reck the rede1 Than ever did the adviser. This poem, it will be observed, is for the greater part in English; and it is not throughout written with all the purity of diction which Burns never violates in his native dialect. For instance, in the fourth stanza the word "censure is used to suit the exigencies of the rhyme, where the sense demands some such term as deplore or regret; for, although we might censure the man himself who fails to succeed in life (which, however, is not the idea here), we do not censure, that is blame or condemn, his fate; we can only lament it; if we censure anything, it is his conduct. In the same stanza, the expression "stare him " is, we apprehend, neither English nor Scotch : usage authorizes us to speak of poverty staring a man in the face, but not of it staring him, absolutely. Again, in the tenth stanza, we have "Religion may be blinded," apparently, for may be blinked, disregarded, or looked at as with shut eyes. We notice these things, to prevent an impression being left with the English reader that they are characteristic of Burns. No such vices of style, we repeat, are to be found in his Scotch, where the diction is uniformly as natural and correct as it is appropriate and expressive. * Our next extract shall be a portion of his Epistle to Davie [David Sillar], a Brother Poet, in which we have something of the same strain of sentiment, with a manner, however, more fervid or impetuous : 1 "Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own read."-Shakespeare, Hamlet. * Unless, indeed, we may interpret the word as meaning deprived of the power of seeing. The honest heart that 's free frae a' What though, like commoners of air, Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods, In days when daisies deck the ground, On braes, when we please, then, It's no in titles nor in rank, It's no in wealth like Lon'on bank, If happiness hae not her seat And centre in the breast, Nae treasures nor pleasures Could make us happy lang; That makes us right or wrang.10 Think ye that sic11 as you and I, Wha drudge and drive through wet and dry Think ye, are we less blest than they Wha scarcely tent us in their way, As hardly worth their while? |