Chapter XXIII: Section I: Poetry of the Eighteenth Century

IN the preceding volumes of this work some account of the ballad literature and the poetry of Scotland was presented. In the period now under review, the number of poetical writers had largely increased, and it should be understood that the poets noticed in the following pages may not in every case be the ones most worthy of attention. Among them will be found poets who wrote in English, and others who composed in their native tongue.

The fierce struggles of the seventeenth century were unfavourable to efforts of culture of any kind, but during the eighteenth century the internal condition of the country improved. When Allan Ramsay¹ appeared as an author, the nation was not altogether unprepared to receive his humorous and lively sketches of Scottish life. Although he had a keen literary taste, he applied himself attentively to business, and did not commence writing till he was about twenty-five years of age. His writings are pretty various, and consist of comic, satirical, pastoral pieces, songs, and tales; he sometimes wrote in English, but usually in Scotch, in which his best efforts appeared. Ramsay’s tales are very humorous, but occasionally rather indelicate. Some of his songs were long favourites, such as “The Last Time I came o’er the Moor,” “Lochaber no More,” and “The Yellow Haired Laddie.”

¹ He was born in the village of Leadhills, in Lanarkshire,
in 1686, his father having died when he was an infant.
Allan remained at Leadhills till his fifteenth year,
and was educated at the village school, where he learned
a smattering of Latin. At the age of fifteen he was
apprenticed to a wig-maker in Edinburgh, at which occupation
he worked for thirteen or fourteen years. He then set up as
a bookseller, and soon embarked in earnest on his literary
career. The Easy Club was founded in 1712, and Ramsay
addressed it in a rhymed effusion. He was a social man, and
to this Club read a number of his early efforts in verse,
which gave him confidence. He died in 1758.

In 1721 he published a collection of his poems, which had before appeared in leaflets. In 1724 the first volume of his well-known collection, _The Tea Table Miscellany_, appeared, and was followed at intervals by other three volumes, which contained some of his own songs. Soon after he published _The Evergreen_, a collection of Scottish poems written before 1600, in which he presented as ancient poems two pieces of his own. In one of these, “The Vision,” he has obviously drawn inspiration from an Ossianic source, as may be seen in the following lines:――

“Great daring darted frae his e’e,
A braid sword shogled at his thie,
On his left arm a targe;
A shining spear filled his right hand,
Of stalwart make in bane and brawnd,
Of just proportion large;
A various rainbow-coloured plaid
Owre his left spaul he threw,
Down his braid back, frae his white head,
The silver wimplers grew.”

In 1725, his celebrated pastoral drama, _The Gentle Shepherd_, appeared, and was received with almost universal approbation; and his fame soon extended beyond the limits of Scotland. An edition of his poetical works was published in London, in 1731, and another in Dublin, in 1733. This drama is Ramsay’s greatest work; its conception and construction are exceedingly natural. He drew his shepherds from real life, placed them in scenes which he had seen, and makes them utter the idiomatic speech of their own native vales and hills. His art is chiefly shown in the selection of materials, in the grouping of natural and well-defined characters, in the clear conception of an interesting, natural, and romantic plot; and in the forming of every character, speech, and incident into a harmonious and pleasing unity, which finally results in a charming work.

Ramsay possessed several of the qualities of a real poet, imagination, the elaborative faculty, passion, wit, humour, and pathos. The pathos in some of his poems and songs, is very remarkable; his “Lochaber no More” breathes a strain of genuine feeling with touches of pure pathos. Though not a very original genius or a great poet, yet he has the merit of having led the Scottish poetical revival of the eighteenth century.¹

¹ Allan Ramsay was the first that established a circulating
library in Scotland. In his shop many of the wits of
Edinburgh used to meet for amusement, and to hear the news
of the day. He continued to sell and lend out books till
towards the close of his life.

William Hamilton, of Gilbertfield, wrote several pieces of verse which were printed in Watson’s Collection. He also entered into a poetical correspondence with Ramsay, and through this, his verses were printed along with Ramsay’s works. Hamilton’s verses are not of high poetical merit, though some of them present keen humorous characteristics. In 1722 his modernised edition of Blind Harry’s _Wallace_ appeared, which was long popular among the country people. He died in 1751 at an advanced age.

Robert Crawford was a contributor to Ramsay’s _Tea-table Miscellany_, and was the author of two fine lyrics――“The Bush aboon Traquair,” “Tweedside,” and other songs. He was drowned when coming from France in 1733, in his thirty-eighth year.

James Thomson was born at Ednam in Roxburghshire, in 1700, where his father was minister. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh; but the death of his father, in 1720, seems to have cut short his University career. He manifested a taste for poetry at an early age, and wrote in English. The earliest printed specimen of his poetry appeared in 1720, in the _Edinburgh Miscellany_ issued by the Athenian Society. In 1725 Thomson proceeded to London to push his fortune, where he had a pretty hard struggle. His description of Winter was published in 1726, for which he received three guineas; and a second and a third edition appeared the same year. In 1728 his work, entitled _The Four Seasons_, was published by subscription. His tragedy of _Sophonisba_ appeared in 1730, and had a brief success on the stage. _The Castle of Indolence_, on which he had worked long, was published in May, 1748. In the end of the following August he died.

Although a highly-gifted poet, he advanced slowly, by often repeated efforts, toward the realisation of his ideal of poetic style and finish of composition. This is seen in the different editions of his _Seasons_, on each succeeding one he made many improvements in thought and diction; while the superiority in style and taste of _The Castle of Indolence_, compared with his earlier efforts, is very manifest. In short, he was staidly working to his strength, when cut off in the prime of life. His genius was luxuriant, glowing, and enthusiastic, but required disciplining. His feelings were warm and wide, his sympathies universal, embracing all mankind. His love of nature was intense; and his heart and soul throbbed with humanity. The following few stanzas from The _Castle of Indolence_ may be taken as a brief specimen of his powers and style:――

“Behold! ye pilgrims of this earth, behold!
See all but man with unearned pleasure gay:
See her bright robes the butterfly unfold,
Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of May;
What youthful bride can equal her array?
Who can with her for easy pleasure vie?
From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray,
From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly,
Is all she has to do beneath the radiant sky.
Behold the merry minstrels of the morn,
The swarming songsters of the careless grove,
Ten thousand throats! that from the flowering thorn,
Hymn their good God, and carol sweet of love,
Such grateful kindly raptures then emove;
They neither plough, nor sow; ne, fit for flail,
E’er to the barn the nodding sheaves they drove;
Yet theirs each harvest dancing in the gale,
Whatever crowns the hill, or smiles along the vale.
Outcast of nature, man! the wretched thrall
Of bitter dropping sweat, of sweltry pain,
Of cares that eat away the heart with gall,
And of the vices, an inhuman train,
That all proceed from savage thirst of gain:
For when hard-hearted Interest first began
To poison earth, Astræa left the plain;
Guile, violence, and murder, seized on man,
And, for soft milky streams, with blood the rivers ran!
Come, ye who still the cumbrous load of life,
Push hard up hill; but at the furthest steep
You trust to gain, and put an end to strife,
Down thunders back the stone with mighty sweep,
And hurls your labours to the valleys deep,
For ever vain; come, and, withouten fee,
I in oblivion will your sorrows steep,
Your cares, your toils, will steep you in a sea
Of full delight: O come, ye weary wights, to me.”

Thomson wrote a number of short poems and songs, some of which were popular; but his fame mainly rests on the two poems――_The Seasons_ and _The Castle of Indolence_. The appearance of these two poems marked an era in the history of English poetry. The chief characteristics of these poems consist in the genuine and charming realisation of the beauty of external nature; and it was in this that his genius and originality appeared. Although he was not the founder of a school, yet he wielded a marked influence over the poets of his time, and also on some eminent English poets of a later period.

David Mallet, whose original name was Malloch, was a native of Perthshire, and born about the end of the seventeenth century. He studied for some time under Professor Ker at King’s College, Aberdeen; and subsequently, having obtained a situation as tutor in the family of the Duke of Montrose, in 1723 he went to London with the Duke’s family. In 1724 his ballad, entitled _William and Mary_, appeared, which was long popular, and continued to be printed in school books till past the middle of the present century. Afterwards he engaged in a variety of literary ventures, none of which had much real merit. In 1728 his poem, _The Excursion_, was published, in which the imitation of Thomson’s _Seasons_ is simply shameless. He wrote several tragedies, and a _Life of Bacon_. He seems to have been a venal writer, and not a very honest man. He died at London in 1765.

John Armstrong, the son of a minister, was born in 1709 at Castleton in Roxburghshire. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, and graduated in 1732. Shortly after he went to London, and became a friend of Thomson and a writer of verses. In 1744 his didactic poem in blank verse, entitled _The Art of Preserving Health_, was published, which is his chief work. It is divided into four books, and the tone of the verse rises or sinks according to the character of the subject. The first book treats on air; the second on diet; the third on exercise; and the fourth on the passions. There are a few touching passages in the poem, but on the whole it is rather stiff. He wrote a considerable number of pieces of verse on various subjects. He died in 1779, and left £3000.

Robert Blair¹ was a native of Edinburgh, the son of a Scottish minister, and, having studied for the Church, in 1731 he was appointed minister of the parish of Athelstaneford, in East Lothian. He was a cultured man, a botanist and florist, and of pleasing manners. He had a large family, and one of his sons, an eminent lawyer, rose to be Lord President of the Court of Session. He was the author of a poem entitled _The Grave_, which is written in blank verse, and appeared in 1743. Although of limited scope, it is a powerful poem. The following lines are from his description of the death of the strong man:――

¹ Born in 1699; died in 1746.

“Strength, too, thou surly and less gentle boast
Of those that laugh loud at the village ring!
A fit of common sickness pulls thee down
With greater ease than e’er thou didst the stripling
That rashly dared thee to the unequal fight.
What groan was that I heard? deep groan, indeed,
With anguish heavy laden let me trace it:
From yonder bed it comes, where the strong man,
By stronger arm belaboured, gasps for breath
Like a hard-hunted beast. How his great heart
Beats thick, his roomy chest by far too scant
To give the lungs full play! What now avail
The strong-built sinewy limbs and well-spread shoulders?
See, how he tugs for life, and lays about him,
Mad with his pain! Eager he catches hold
Of what comes next to hand, and grasps it hard,
Just like a drowning creature. Hideous sight!”

William Hamilton, of Bangour,¹ was descended from an old Ayrshire family, and attained some distinction as a poet. He was a contributor to Ramsay’s _Tea Table Miscellany_, and usually lived in Edinburgh. In 1745 he joined the standard of Prince Charles, but in 1749 he received a pardon; and in 1750, on the death of his brother, he succeeded to the estate of Bangour. A collection of his poems was published at Glasgow in 1760. His language and style is English, and rather ornate. He composed a serious poem on “Contemplation,” and a national one on the “Thistle,” in blank verse. He had a lively fancy, but lacked intellectual power, and his verse wants strength. The best of his efforts is his ballad called “The Braes of Yarrow.”

¹ Born in 1704; died in 1754.

Alexander Ross was born in 1699 at Kincardine O’Neil in Aberdeenshire, and was educated at Marischal College. After graduating in 1718 he acted as schoolmaster in the parish schools of Moyne and Lawrencekirk, and in 1732 he was appointed schoolmaster of Lochlee in Forfarshire. At Lochlee he spent the rest of his life. He was the author of _Helenore_, or, _The Fortunate Shepherdess_, published in 1768, and composed in Scotch. Dr. Beattie took a warm interest in Ross, and addressed a letter and a poetical epistle in praise of the poem to the _Aberdeen Journal_, and the work soon became popular. _Helenore_ is a pastoral narrative poem, extending to upwards of 4000 lines, and it has much merit; it is as bold and true to nature as Ramsay’s _Gentle Shepherd_, though his poetic gift was inferior in some points to that of his predecessor. His poem is vigorous, interesting, and the chief characters well drawn. He was also the author of a number of songs, of which the most popular are “The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow,” “Woo’d an’ Married an’ a’,” and “To the Begging we will Go.” These have energy and much humour. Ross left a number of ♦unpublished writings in verse and prose. He died at Lochlee in 1784, at the advanced age of eighty-five.

♦ “unpubblished” replaced with “unpublished”

John Skinner was born in 1721 at Birse, Aberdeenshire, where his father was parish schoolmaster. He became an Episcopal minister, and officiated at Linshart, Longside, in Aberdeenshire. He was a humble, very amiable, and cultured gentleman. After the suppression of the Rising of 1745, for his Church’s political and his own poetical offences, he was arrested and imprisoned in 1753 for six months in Aberdeen. His son, John Skinner, was elected bishop of Aberdeen in 1782. After a long, a conscientious and industrious life, he died in his son’s house at Aberdeen in 1807, at the age of eighty-six years.

Skinner was gifted with a vigorous mind. He had imaginative power, keen feelings, and a fine sense of the humorous; while a number of his poetical pieces and songs show characteristic merits. The most noted of his songs are “Tullochgorum,” “John O’ Badenyon,” and “The Ewie wi’ the Crooked Horn.” He was also the author of _Ecclesiastical History of Scotland_, published in 1788, in two volumes, and a number of other religious and theological works.

Dr. Thomas Blacklock, the son of a bricklayer, was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, in 1721. When an infant of six months he was entirely deprived of sight by small-pox. But his father amused the solitary boy by reading to him, and he became familiar with the writings of some of the English poets, and particularly with the works of Thomson and Allan Ramsay. When he was nineteen years of age his father was accidentally killed. Shortly after Dr. Stevenson took him to Edinburgh, where he was enrolled as a student of divinity. A volume of his poems appeared in 1746, which was re-issued in 1754 and 1756. He was licensed to preach in 1759, and was appointed minister of Kirkcudbright. But the parishioners were opposed to church patronage, and to the exercise of it in favour of a blind man, and he relinquished the appointment on receiving a small annuity. He afterwards resided in Edinburgh, and took boarders into his house. Notwithstanding the want of his eyesight, he had acquired a considerable degree of learning, and was an exceedingly amiable man. He was a warm friend of Burns, who often refers to him. In August, 1789, he addressed a poetical epistle to Burns, of which a few lines may be quoted:――

“Dear Burns, thou brother of my heart
Both for thy virtues and thy art.

* * * * *

Most anxiously I wish to know,
With thee of late how matters go;
How keeps thy much-loved Jean her health?
What promises thy farm of wealth?
Whether the Muse persists to smile,
And all thy anxious cares beguile?
Whether bright fancy keeps alive?
And how thy darling infants thrive?”

Although the poems of Blacklock are not remarkable for strong sentiment or imaginative power, yet he was a fluent versifier. He also wrote several treatises on religious subjects, and an article on blindness for the _Encyclopædia Britannica_. He died in 1791.

Dr. T. G. Smollett, already mentioned in a preceding section, occasionally tried his hand at poetry as well as history and fiction. He was born in Dalquharn House, Dumbartonshire, in 1721, and educated at the Grammar School of Dumbarton, and the University of Glasgow. He served his apprenticeship with a medical practitioner in Glasgow, and, before he was twenty, proceeded to London to seek his fortune. But it is beyond my scope to narrate his chequered career. He produced no long poems, but he was the author of a number of short pieces of some merit, such as his “Ode to Independence,” “Ode to Leven Water,” and the “Tears of Scotland.” The latter was written soon after the battle of Culloden, and refers to the cruelties committed by the English forces in the Highlands. It is a touching and powerful piece, and extends to seven stanzas. There is both fire and real pathos in it, as these lines show:――

“Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn
Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn!
Thy sons, for valour long renowned,
Lie slaughtered on their native ground;
Thy hospitable roofs no more
Invite the stranger to the door;
In smoky ruins sunk they lie,
The monuments of cruelty.

The wretched owner sees afar
His all become the prey of war;
Bethinks him of his babes and wife,
Then smites his breast, and curses life.
Thy swans are famished on the rocks,
Where once they fed their wanton flocks;
Thy ravished virgins shriek in vain;
Thy infants perish on the plain.

* * * * *

Oh! baneful cause, oh! fatal morn,
Accursed to ages yet unborn;
The sons against their fathers stood,
The parent shed his children’s blood.
Yet, when the rage of battle ceased,
The victor’s soul was not appeased:
The naked and the forlorn must feel
Devouring flames and murdering steel.

The pious mother, doomed to death,
Forsaken wanders o’er the heath,
The bleak wind whistles round her head,
Her helpless orphans cry for bread;
Bereft of shelter, food, and friend,
She views the shades of night descend:
And stretched beneath the inclement skies,
Weeps o’er her tender babes, and dies.

While the warm blood bedews my veins,
And unimpaired remembrance reigns,
Resentment of my country’s fate
Within my filial breast shall beat;
And, spite of her insulting foe,
My sympathising verse shall flow:
‘Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn
Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn.’”¹

¹ “I was in the coffee-house with Smollett when the news of
the battle of Culloden arrived, and when London all over was
in a perfect uproar of joy.... About 9 o’clock I wished to
go home to Lyon’s, in New Bond Street.... I asked Smollett
if he was ready to go, as he lived at Mayfair; he said he
was, and would conduct me. The mob were so riotous, and the
squibs so numerous and incessant, that we were glad to go
into a narrow entry to put our wigs in our pockets, and to
take our broadswords from our belts and walk with them in
our hands, as everybody then wore swords; and after warning
me not to speak a word, lest the mob should discover my
country and become insolent, ‘For, John Bull,’ says he,
‘is as haughty and valiant to-night as he was abject and
cowardly on the black Wednesday when the Highlanders were
at Derby.’... When I saw Smollett again, he showed me the
manuscript of his ‘Tears of Scotland,’ which was published
not long after, and had such a run of approbation. Smollett,
though a Tory, was not a Jacobite, but he had the feelings
of a Scotch gentleman on the reported cruelties that
were said to be exercised after the battle of Culloden.”
――_Autobiography of the Rev. Alexander Carlyle_, page 190.
Dr. Robert Anderson, the biographer of the British poets,
wrote a life of Smollett.

John Home, the author of _The Tragedy of Douglas_, was born in Leith in 1722. He was educated for the Church, and succeeded Blair as minister of Athelstaneford. In the end of the year 1756 _Douglas_ was first acted in Edinburgh, and proved a complete success, as it held the stage for many nights, and was attended by all the literary notabilities and some of the judges. The citizens were greatly elated that a Scotsman had written a first-rate tragedy, and that its merit was first submitted to their judgment; though there were a few opposers, who pretended to superior taste in literature, and endeavoured to cry down the performance in pamphlets and ballads, while one section of the clergy were unanimous against it. But _The Tragedy of Douglas_ maintained its hold on the stage for more than fifty years, and still ranks amongst the better class of the productions of the modern English drama.

A party of the clergy, and especially Home’s own presbytery, raised a clamour, and were preparing a prosecution against him, when he resigned his charge, and withdrew from the Church.¹ Lord Bute, however, rewarded Home with the sinecure office of conservator of Scots privileges at Campvere; and when George III. ascended the throne he received a pension of £300 per annum. He wrote several other tragedies which were soon forgotten; yet, with an income of about £600 a year, he lived in easy and happy circumstances. In the later years of his life, he wrote a _History of the Rising of 1745_, published in 1802; it is not, however, of much historical value. He survived all the literary associates and companions of his youth, and having attained the great age of eighty-six, died in 1808.

¹ _Autobiography of the Rev. Alexander Carlyle_, pages 310‒325.

Richard Gall, while working as a painter in Edinburgh, wrote
several songs which became popular. One entitled, “My only
Jo and Dearie O,” and another, “Farewell to Ayrshire,” has
often been printed as a composition of Burns. Gall was born
in 1776, and died in 1800.

William Falconer, the son of a barber, was born at Edinburgh in 1732. He went early to sea, and before he was eighteen years of age, had attained the rank of second mate in the _Britannia_, which, when trading between Venice and Alexandria, was wrecked off Cape Colonna. Falconer and other two men alone escaped. It was his experiences on this occasion which formed the subject of his poem, “The Shipwreck.” This poem appeared in 1762, and was very successful. In 1764 a second edition was issued, enlarged by nine hundred new lines; and a third was published in 1769, with two hundred lines added to the poem, and many alterations of the text. But his literary activity was closed by an untimely death. In 1769 he sailed on board a vessel bound for India, which reached the Cape of Good Hope in December, but was never after heard of. Since Falconer’s death, several editions of his poem has been published.

Although “The Shipwreck” is very unequal, it has the merit of being exceedingly animated and interesting. As he wrote of what he actually saw and felt, the poem has the characteristic attraction of truth and reality.

A great stir was raised in literary circles in Scotland, especially in Edinburgh, by the publication of Macpherson’s translation of Ossian’s poems. James Macpherson was born at Kingussie, in Inverness-shire, in 1738. He was intended for the Church, and was educated at the University of Aberdeen. In 1760 he published a small volume entitled _Fragments of Ancient Poetry Translated from the Gaelic_, which attracted much attention. His friends encouraged him to make a tour in the Highlands to collect other pieces. As the result of his journey, he published, in 1762, _Fingal_, an ancient epic poem, in six books; and in 1763, _Temora_, another epic poem in eight books. The sale of these poems was great, and it is reported that Macpherson realised a sum of £1200 from them. His patrons, Mr. Home, Dr. Blair, Dr. Alexander Carlyle, and others, were much pleased and rejoiced. But many doubted, and some disbelieved that the poems were genuine; and then a vehement controversy arose on the subject of their authenticity, which raged long. Meanwhile, Macpherson fixed his residence in London, and became a popular pamphleteer in support of the Government of the day; and finally he entered parliament as the representative of the Borough of Camelford. Having realised a large fortune, in 1789 he purchased the estate of Raitts, in his native parish, built upon it a fine residence, in the style of an Italian villa, in which he died on the 17th of February, 1796. In accordance with his own explicit directions his remains were interred in Westminster Abbey, while a monument was erected to his memory on his own estate, which may be seen by the roadside near Kingussie.

That Macpherson was gifted with remarkable abilities, his career amply demonstrates; but considering his extreme vanity, his veracity is a totally different question. There is no doubt that he collected a certain quantity of the traditional pieces of verse and fragments of ancient Gaelic poetry, which was then current among the Celtic people of the Highlands. The only question is, how much Macpherson himself added to complete the poems which he published. When the circumstances connected with the subject are fairly weighed, the question is not a very difficult one; and the obvious conclusion is, that he drew from his own imaginative and elaborative faculties all that was needed to give the poems the completed and finished form in which they appeared in his published translations. The original material of these poems was probably not very bulky, and perhaps more than the half of the two published epic poems, should be assigned to the genius of Macpherson.

Dr. James Beattie, already mentioned, was a poet as well as a writer and teacher of moral philosophy. In 1760, he published a collection of his poems, with some translations, which was reprinted in 1766, without the translations. The first part of his _Minstrel_ appeared in 1771, the second in 1774. The volume met with a flattering reception, while honours flowed in on the author. He visited London, and was admitted to its brilliant circles; he also had an interview with the king and queen, and received a pension of £200 per annum; while the University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.

Beattie’s fame now chiefly rests on _The Minstrel_, which is a didactic poem, in the Spenserian stanza, intended to “trace the progress of a poetical genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawning of fancy and reason till that period at which he may be supposed capable of appearing in the world as a minstrel.” The poem, though left unfinished, is well worked out so far as it goes, and there are many fine passages in it. He had good descriptive powers, and the command of appropriate and expressive language, but he was deficient in grasp and range of thought. The following lines describing a morning landscape is a fair specimen of his poetry:

“Even now his eyes with smiles of rapture glow,
As on he wanders through the scenes of morn,
Where the fresh flowers in living lustre blow,
Where thousand pearls the dewy lawns adorn,
A thousand notes of joy in every breeze are borne.
But who the melodies of morn can tell?
The wild brook babbling down the mountain side;
The lowing herd; the sheepfold’s simple bell;
The pipe of early shepherd dim descried
In the lone valley; echoing far and wide
The clamorous horn along the cliffs above;
The hollow murmur of the ocean tide;
The hum of bees, the linnet’s lay of love,
And the full choir that wakes the universal grove.
The cottage curs at early pilgrim bark;
Crowned with her pail the tripping milkmaid sings:
The whistling ploughman stalks a field; and hark!
Down the rough slope the ponderous waggon rings;
Through rustling corn the hare astonished springs;
Slow tolls the village clock the drowsy hour;
The partridge bursts away on whirring wings;
Deep mourns the turtle in sequestered bower,
And shrill lark carols clear from her aerial tower.”

John Logan¹ was a native of the parish of Fala, in Midlothian, the son of a small farmer. He was educated for the Church, and in 1773 he was appointed one of the ministers of South Leith. He delivered a course of lectures on the philosophy of history in Edinburgh, the substance of which was published in 1781. In 1782 he published his poems, and the following year he issued a tragedy entitled “Runnymede,” founded on the signing of Magna Charta. But his congregation were displeased at this application of his powers, and unfortunately Logan himself had fallen into dissipated habits; the result was that he resigned his charge and went to London, where he resided till his death.

¹ Born in 1748 and died in 1788. In 1770 Logan edited the poems
of Michael Bruce, an ingenious and persevering youth, who
died in his twenty-second year, Bruce’s poems were reprinted
in 1784, and afterwards included in Anderson’s edition of
the poets. Among the best of Bruce’s pieces is “Lochleven,”
a descriptive poem in blank verse. If his life had been
spared, it is probable he would have taken a high rank among
the national poets.

When in London, Logan contributed papers to _The English Review_, and wrote a pamphlet on the charges against Warren Hastings――an able defence of the accused, and attack on his accusers, which led to the trial of Stockdale the printer, and to one of the most memorable of Erskine’s speeches. Among Logan’s MSS. were found some unfinished tragedies, thirty lectures on Roman History, and a collection of sermons, from which two volumes were selected and published by his executors. The best of Logan’s poetical efforts are his “Visit to the Country in Autumn,” and his ballad stanzas on the “Braes of Yarrow.” In his lines on the death of a young lady, the following occurs:――

“What tragic tears bedew the eye!
What deaths we suffer ere we die!
Our broken friendships we deplore,
And loves of youth that are no more!
No after-friendship e’er can raise
The endearments of our early days,
And ne’er the heart such fondness prove,
As when it first began to love.” Amen.

The genial Robert Fergusson was a native of Edinburgh,¹ a poet whose life was short. He has sometimes been called the poet of Scottish city-life. He was educated at the University of St. Andrews, where he spent four years; but it seems that he had failed to form a definite end in life, and unhappily he became a victim of dissipation. His chief characteristics as a poet are――a keen sense of the ludicrous, a strong vein of original comic humour, a talent for describing the peculiarities of local manners, and a copious command of expressive language. He wrote poems both in English and Scotch; his Scotch pieces, however, are most esteemed. He was a genius, but his career was short, having died in his twenty-third year. In 1773 he collected and published his poems in a volume, which was well received. Some of the most notable of his pieces are “The King’s Birthday,” “The Sitting of the Session,” “Guid Braid Claith,” and “Auld Reekie,” that is, Edinburgh.

¹ Born in 1751, and died in 1774.

Burns avowedly had an excessive admiration for the writings of Fergusson, and even preferred them to those of Ramsay. Perhaps a few lines from Fergusson’s effusion entitled “Cauler Water” will indicate why it was that Burns admired him so much:――

“When father Adie first pat spade in
The bonny yard o’ ancient Eden,
His aumrie had nae liquor laid in
To fire his mou,
Nor did he thole his wife’s upbraidin’
For bein’ fou.

A cauler burn o’ siller sheen
Ran cannily out-ower the green,
And when our gutcher’s drouth had been
To bide right sair,
He loutit down and drank bedeen
A dainty skair.

His bairns had a’ before the flood
A langer tack o’ flesh and blood,
And on mair pithy shanks they stood
Than Noah’s line,
Wha still hae been a feckless brood
Wi’ drinkin’ wine.

The fuddlin’ bardies now-a-days,
Rin maukin-mad in Bacchus’ praise,
And limp and stoiter through their lays
Anacreontic,
While each his sea of wine displays
As big’s the Pontic.

* * * * *

But we’ll hae nae sic clitter-clatter;
And, briefly to expound the matter,
It shall be ca’d guid cauler water;
Than whilk, I trow,
Few drugs in doctors’ shops are better
For me or you.

* * * * *

What makes Auld Reekie’s dames sae fair?
It canna be the halesome air;
But cauler burn, beyond compare
The best o’ ony,
That gars them a’ sic graces skair,
And blink sae bonny.

On May-day, in a fairy ring,
We’ve seen them round St. Anthon’s spring,¹
Frae grass the cauler dew-draps wring
To weet their een,
And water, clear as crystal spring,
To synd them clean.”

¹ A well on Arthur’s Seat, near Edinburgh, to which it is still
the practice of young Edinburgh maidens to resort on May-day.

A student of Burns will hardly fail to observe in the above, and in many other of Fergusson’s verses, certain turns of thought, modes of feeling and strains, common to both poets, although the latter had not the volume of passion nor the intellectual power of the former.

So much has been written about Burns, and his poems and songs are so well known among all classes throughout Scotland, that any lengthened account of them is unnecessary; but something may be said, however, on the influence which his writings have had on the imaginative literature of the nation, and of his general influence upon the people.

Burns was a great reader, and an assiduous student. He was familiar with the history of his native country and the heroic national struggles. He was well acquainted with the early ballads, songs, and poetry of Scotland, and also the poetical writings of his immediate predecessors and contemporaries. He says himself:――“I have paid more attention to every description of Scots songs than perhaps any body living has done.” His “Remarks on Scottish Songs and Ballads” afford evidence that this statement was well founded. His knowledge, however, was not limited to songs and poetry; he knew a good deal about general literature, and even philosophy. In some fragments of his Common Place Book he says: “I entirely agree with that judicious philosopher, Mr. Smith, in his excellent _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, that remorse is the most painful sentiment that can embitter the human bosom. Any ordinary pitch of fortitude may bear up tolerably well under these calamities, in the procurement of which we ourselves have had no hand, but when our follies or crimes have made us miserable and wretched, to bear up with manly firmness, and at the same time have a proper penitential sense of our misconduct, is a glorious effort of self-command.

“I have often observed in the course of my experience of human life that every man, even the worst, has something good about him, though very often nothing else than a happy temperament of constitution inclined him to this or that virtue. For this reason, no man can say in what degree any other person besides himself can be, with strict justice, called wicked. Let any of the strictest for regularity among us examine impartially how many vices he has never been guilty of, not from any care or vigilance, but for want of opportunity or some accidental circumstance intervening; how many of the weaknesses of mankind he has escaped, because he was out of the line of such temptations; and what often, if not always, weighs more than all the rest, how much he is indebted to the world’s good opinion, because the world does not know all. I say, any man who can thus think, will scan the failings, nay, the faults and crimes, of mankind around him with a brother’s eye.” This is pretty good philosophy.

“I have every possible reverence for the much talked of world beyond the grave, and I wish that what piety believes, and virtue deserves, may be all matter of fact.

“Strong pride of reasoning, with a little affectation of singularity, may mislead the best of hearts. I likewise, in the pride of despising old women’s stories, ventured in ‘the daring path Spinoza trod,’ but experience of the weakness, not the strength, of human powers, made me glad to grasp at revealed religion.”

He had a high ideal of the poet’s functions, and says――“I glory in being a poet, and I want to be thought a wise man.... Poets, of all mankind, feel most forcibly the powers of beauty. If they are really poets of nature’s making, their feelings must be finer, and their taste more delicate, than those of most of the world. In the cheerful bloom of spring, or the pensive mildness of autumn, the grandeur of summer, or the hoary majesty of winter, the poet feels a charm unknown to the rest of his species. Even the sight of a fine flower, or the company of a fine woman (by far the fairest of God’s works below), have sensations for the poetic heart that the herd of mankind are strangers to.”

The first edition of Burns’s poems appeared in the summer of 1786, and consisted of 600 copies, and several other authorised editions were published in his lifetime――one in 1787, another in 1793, with the addition of “Tam o’ Shanter” and other pieces. Since his death, one hundred years ago, the number of editions of his works published amount to upwards of three hundred and forty.¹

¹ When on a visit to Glasgow recently, the intelligent and
amiable librarian of the Mitchell Library, Mr. Barrett,
kindly showed me through every department of the
establishment under his charge; and I was delighted to find
that this Library possessed a special corner containing a
most extensive and valuable collection of editions of the
works of Burns, embracing upwards of a 1000 volumes, and
comprises 343 separate editions of his works, in from one
to eight volumes each. The citizens of Glasgow may well be
proud of this special and memorable collection.

The influence of Burns on the imaginative literature of Scotland has been deep and abiding. Many Scotsmen have been so touched, moved, and stirred by his writings, as to arouse an irrepressible feeling within then to compose verse themselves; and to-day there are many in the humble walks of life who can write passable and even animated verse and song, and appreciate the highest works of the imaginative and elaborate faculties of the race. Burns has exercised much influence over the mind of the Scottish people by removing prejudice and superstition, fostering liberty and independence of spirit, and greater freedom of thought. In regard to prejudice and superstition, the satirical and comic features of many of Burns’ pieces have had a very beneficial effect upon the mind of the people. In conjunction with other influences, these have contributed greatly to enlighten the understanding, and thus enabled the people to banish from their minds a host of delusive and absurd fears.¹

¹ For instance, in such pieces as his “Address to the Deil,”
though he adopted the common superstitions of the people
concerning the attributes of Satan, the elements of the
ludicrous, the sly humour, and the veins of satire and irony
which he introduced, have produced surprising changes in
the notions of the people. He even expressed a wish for the
salvation of the Deil himself:――

“But fare-you-well, auld Nickie-ben!
Oh! wad you tak’ a thocht and men’!
Ye aiblins micht――I dinna ken――
Still hae a stake:
I’m wae to think upo’ yon den,
Even for your sake.”

Touching liberty and independence, the writings of Burns are clear and emphatic. His own manly spirit of independence often shows itself in many forms in his poems and songs; and in this connection their influence upon the people have been considerable. Even politically his writings have had a beneficial influence in Scotland. “The Tree of Liberty,” and that “a man is a man whatever his lot may be,” with all the rights of humanity, were not written in vain. Thus the writings of Burns have contributed to the enlightenment of the national mind, by relieving it from a burden of obnoxious notions, slavish fears, and silly prejudices.¹

¹ There are a number of what are usually called minor poets,
but I can only notice a few of them.

Alexander Wilson was born in Paisley on the 6th of July,
1766. He is the author of a number of songs and poems,
including a humorous ballad――“Watty and Meg.” A small
volume of his songs and poems was printed at Paisley in
1790. In 1794 he emigrated to America, where he assiduously
prosecuted the study of ornithology, and gained distinction
as an ornithologist. He is the author of an important work
on this branch of science. He died in 1813 in America.
Some years ago Wilson’s verse and miscellaneous prose were
published by Mr. Gardner in two volumes.

Hector Macneil was born in 1746, and died in 1818. He is
the author of several productions in verse. In 1789, he
published a legendary poem, “The Harp,” and in 1795, his
moral tale, “Scotland’s Skaith:” the object of this tale
was to describe in a vivid manner the evil effects of
intemperance, and the idea is pretty well worked out.

Carolina Oliphant, Baroness ♦Nairne, born in 1766, and died
in 1845; she belonged to the Oliphants of Gask, and was much
celebrated for her beauty, talents, and worth. She is the
authoress of the two fine Scottish songs, “The Land o’ the
Leal,” and “The Laird o’ Cockpen.”

John Lowe, born in 1750, and died in 1798, is the author of
the touching lyric, “Mary’s Dream,” beginning――

The moon had climbed the highest hill
Which rises o’er the source o’ Dee,
And from the eastern summit shed
Her silver light on tower and tree.”

♦ “Nairn” replaced with “Nairne”