ROBERT BURNS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2707, 31 January 1906, Page 65

ROBERT BURNS.

(By "W. X.," Marlborough.)

Scotland's representative man!

" A true poet — a man in whose heart resides some effluence of wisdom, some tone of the ' Eternal Melodies ' — is ths most precious gift that can be bestowed en a generation : his life is a rich lesson to us, and we mourn his death as that of a benefactor who loved and taught us." — Carlyle. It is now close on a hundred and fifty years since Scotland found a Voice, and the fame of the Sweet Singer of Scotia was never greater. Robert Burns has been dead for more than 100 years, but his memory is still kept green wherever the sons and daughters of Scotland are found. The genius of Burns has been the theme of many an able pen, and orators all over the Anglo-Saxon world have exhausted the language in laying their tributes on his tomb. So much, indeed, have the praises of Burns been sung, spoken, and written that the subject has long been a hackneyed one, and has more than once produced an effect contrary to what his worshippers intended. However, I make no apology for this essay, as it deals with a phase of the subject so far untouched. BURNS AMONGST THE POETS. Burns's position amongst poets, as one of the " Sacred Band of Immortals,"' is an assured one. Fame he did not lack in his brief, unhappy lifetime, but it was as nothing to that accorded him since he passed to the larger life. Popular opinion j in literary matters is, after all, the best test. Not while we have a writer with us. but the man of whom it can be said, a century after his death, that his name is still a household word — that man's right to his place is unquestioned. It is not to a select coterie that the Bard of Scotia appeals. Notwithstanding his age and tongue, he has reached the hearts of the Englishspeaking 1 peoples, and drawn forth the homage of men speaking strange tongues. The feeling that Burns inspires is one of brotherhood — we feel that here is a man whom Nature made entire, one who is equally the brother of all. Unlike the great stage manager of Human Life, Shakespeare, who from behind the scenes manipulated his living, moving figures — stereotyping the drama of the human heart for all time,— the Scots Bard comes down amongst us, fraternises with us, and we feel that he is very near, that we can Bhake his hand and feel the " friendly glow" of the large-hearted peasant. The man hiniself, like the songs he sang, goes to the heart — none so straight as he, and Literature is your only true democracy ; like the grim King of Terrors, it makes all men equal. Burns's poems pierce all distinctions : the reader feels that it is his manhood, not his position, nor his pelf, that is being touched. A man who can £ock;H fcbe eecr^c spring's of emotion sls Burns did is sure of lasting fame. Considering his work as a poet briefly, wJhat a rare natural genius his wa« ! Take iiis ineffable lyrics — how sweet, tender, and true they are. His love songs appear so fcimple that we feel doubts as to their being products of genius. That is really the true test of genius : its resemblance to Nature. We are so familiar with a flower that it ceases to be regarded as a wonder ; so with th© songs of Burns. He paints the life of man as he saw it — the loves, joys, and sorrows of his fellowmen. which be, too. felt in all their intensity, he gave expression to. We have all felt as Burns felt, but could find no tongue to body forth !What we can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal It is with the character of Burns that T propose chiefly to deal : not with the mistaken idea of whitewashing him : the man can stand, with all his faults. Burns was a true type of his fellow-countrymen. BURNS AN EPITOME OF SCOTLAND. He is the representative man of his country. The more we study the man, his character, life,' and work, the truer will this statement appear. Burns was an epitome of his native land — her history, her aspirations, her faith, her song, her daily life. Consider how " the elements so mixed in him" — a man, like all Scotsmen of a deeply religious nature, yet who lived in doubt and satirised the narrow-minded priesthood of his day, who made Scotland a bj - wor«l for superstition and intolerance — % man who wrote poems "as pure as ice and as chaste as snow," in which the earthly seems to melt and disappear in the heavenly, yet wrote " Holy Willies Prayer, and others of a like eort. Even as the sublime and the profligate mingle and jostle on life's highways, so did they mix in Burns. His sturdy, manly independence was characteristic of his countrymen, vet wiio dees not feel that his contact with the- aristocracy of Scotland did him kiss good than harm'; As a Scotsman he was "brave, patriot. c, Tadioal. Not dour nor " canny" nor mean, as Scots are reckoned to be by ignorant critics who know them not ; not destitute of humour, giving the lie to the egregious id«fc that Scotsmen lack wit. His intense iove of liberty. his philosophic outlook or. life, his hatred of snobbery and shams, his abounding good nature and good fellowship were all traits of the national character. His radical or socialist trait> were also typical of his nation, and in his case were fostered by the circumstances of liib life and the age in which he lived. Notwithstanding his talents, which Carlyle con- i sidered fitted him more than most men for the work of legislation, this noble soul was condemned to the lg-nominous pursuit of " searching auld wives' barrels." I doubt whether Burns's life wag not really predestined — had his life been othar than it was it seems doubtful if Scotland would Slave had a national bard. But to think that. Burns, that great-hearted, gen-erous, and iofty mind, had to suffer "the insolence of office and th© sDurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes," is saddening in the extreme, and makes the blood rise rebellious in our veins. Smarting under th© rebuke administered by the official mind, swathed in bandages of red tape, he wrote these memorable words, charactcrostio of the hand that wrote " A man's a dan for a' that": — " Does any man tell me that my individual eiforts can be of no •aruioe. ajxd that it does nob belong to

my humble station to meddle with the concerns of a nation? I can tell him that it is on such individuals as I that a nation has to rest both for the hand of support and the eye of intelligence. The uninformed Mob may swell a nation's bulk, and the titled, tinselled, courtly throng may be its feathered ornament, but the number of those who are elevated enough in life to reason and reflect, yet low enough to keep clear of the venal contagion of a court — these are a nation's strength." In his own noble words, " Burns was a poor man from birth and an exciseman by necessity ; but the sterling of his British heart oppression might crush, but could not- subdue." Contemplating the history of Scotland, and bearing in mind the fact that of all poets Burns is the one who has in every sense become the Bard of his country, we see no other memorable Scotsman co fit and equipped by nature as the measure of his fellow-countrymen. This is the secret of Burns-worship in Scotland, as the loveableness of the man, seen in his life no less than in his song, has been the chief cause of his being "revered abroad." He himself was among the first to recognise merit in' others : notwithstanding his admitted love of fame, he for long held poets, like Fergusson and Ramsay (really his inferiors) as his masters. The nature of the man was shown by his kindly act, at the height of his popularity, when lie was being lionised in Edinburgh, in erecting and paying for a monument over the grave of the unfortunate Fergusson, a poet of rare merit, not unlike Burns himself, but whose lamp of genius was quenched within the melancholy walls of a madhouse. The present writer has seen that simple stone in a graveyard in one of Edinburgh's old streets, and felt that th© sentiments which inspired the graceful deed were heartfelt and genuine. No nobler tribute to poor Fergusson's genius — cut down in its flower — was ever penned than these lines of Burns, which, carved on the simple stone render it a prouder monument than the mausoleums of the rich and great : — No sculptured marble here nor pompous lay, No storied urn nor animated bust, Thiß simple stone directs pale Scotia's way To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust. EMOTIONAL ELEMENT IN | SCOTISH CHARACTER. i The Scottish character is a complex one — | a fact too often overlooked. The strong dash of Celtic blood in the veins of the Scot is a potent factor in the moulding of the national character. If Burns was, as I claim, the representative Scotsman, then Teutonic stolidity is not so prominent a feature of the Scot's* character as is generally supposed. Indeed, the Scots are more emotional than the English as a nation, to prove which one need only glance at the ballads of Scotland, amongst the forej most being those in which the utmost pathos is to be found. " Auld Robin Gray," "A w-ee bird cam' tae oor ha' door," "The auld hoose," and countless others, chief of which are Burns's "To Mary in Heaven" and "Ye banks and braes," the last-named infusing into those who sing it as it should | be sung the actual feelings of a broken i heart. The dismal *»reed which was long the blight of the national mind was repudii ated alike- by Burns, the free-liver, and by Carlyle, the puritan Scot ; a fact significant of much. The sceptic Hume was a Scotsman ; and Presbyterianism, while having a strong hold on Scotland, is more of a form than a Teality, the deep religious feeling-, of which it is the outer covering, being capable of dispensing with "all forms and shows" of ceremonial. The lights and shades of Scottish life and feelings are to he found alone in Robert Burns of all individual Scotsmen known as "great." OTHER GREAT SCOTSMEN. The heroes of old Wallace and Bruce are too far off to be regarded as types of their nation, though thoir spirit survives; John Knox. the Puritan, was a fair type of the religious man of his country, which, however, is only o-ne type ; George Buchanan was too learned, albeit a truly national character; Walter Scott and Thomas Carlyle were too correct in their lives to typify the Scottish people. Take him for all in all, Robert Burns was the voice and the representative man of his country ; her strength, her weakness, her pride, independence, faith, love of freedom, truth, and honesty were all faithfully reflected in the life of her poet hero. By him 1-is country may be judged, content to stand or fall along with her representative man. The poet alone can be taken as the standard of his fellowmen. For like the work of their hands, he is the standard of their lives. If he is true to his high calling, he is a faithful recorder of hie country's life and work. I claina this for Robert Burns, that he, more than any other individual Scotsman, stands for the rank and file of his fellovy countrymen, the men who bled and died with Wallace, who have shed . lustre on their native land by their work in ' every sphere of life, and whose virtues and ' frailties alike are to be found in the life ] and pages of Burns. They who made the I glorious history of Scotland need no nobl«r I representative than Robert Burns, to w horn men, saints and sinners alike, have bowed in reverence and admiration. His faults j wor£ those of his age and country ; we I will not abate them one jot. Nattire is '■ responsible for that. But to be sure these I things do not happen by chance. We may I not pry info the arcana of Nature as we j gaze with wonder and d-elight on her works. The Bard of Coila. as he delighted to call hirn?elf, was one of the noblest works of Gcd — an honest man, — and could no^ have been otherwise. Hie life is a rich le«*on to u=. Let tho^p who so often render him life service while tlieir hearts kto far from in in ponder over that lesson and live so that Burns, if he were alive, would not pour out th-e Tials of his wrath on their lives and woiks. He glorified his native land ; his songs made our enemies respect us: ho is part of tho great Harmonia which begins and ends m son?. Song i-= the end and aim of all creation ; everything tends to find expression in harmonv — the highest attribute of the divine Mind. Harmony is only possible where love is : hence the love inspired by Burns despite the discords of his hfe. Let v- be trtateful to these sons of song who have brought down heaven to ea,rih. and woven the girdle of brotherhood whioh will one day span the globe, and realise the prophetic lines of Burn«, the poet of Scotland and mankind : When man to man, fhp votl*! o'er Shall brithers be for a' that. Amen, so may it be! The natives of the Malay Pprinsula have in use the vpry smallest current coin in the world. It is a sort of wafer made from the resinous juice of a trep, and is worth, about one ten-thousandth of a penny.