founded on a reason in nature. They are composed according to nature's prosody, and not according to the prosody of narrow art. The criticism which finds fault with these songs, on account of their defective rhymes, assumes that rhyme is essential to all compositions intended to be set to music. Nothing can be more erroneous. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans used rhyme. Their lyrical, as well as their other poetry, is untrammelled by any such fetters, or if you please, unaided by any such artistic help. And if Anacreon could look over modern lyrical poetry, it is not improbable that, so far from considering rhyme an improvement in versification, he would view it somewhat after the manner of Hudibras : "For rhyme the rudder is, of verses,. With which, like ships, they steer their courses." It is quite certain, that whatever versification may gain from the help of rhyme, it certainly is apt to lose that melody of rhythm which is dependent on a certain happy arrangement of words, and that variety of cadence which results from the spontaneous "flow of thoughts that voluntary move harmonious numbers." This criticism of Hudibras has more in it than mere wit. Rhyme is apt to become a mere rudder by which the verse is steered. The versifica tion is apt to become mere see-saw. At the time Burns wrote this criticism, he was not aware, I presume, that rhyme was not used in ancient lyrical poetry, or he could not have doubted that compositions without rhyme were fit to be set to music. His wider literary experience afterwards doubtless gave him fuller information. The truth is, the rules of criticism, even in that part of art where rules can be applied, have all along been too narrow. They are almost exclusively founded on the experience of one nation, and that the earliest in European civilization. The world has appeared to think that there is not a grace which Grecian art did not catch. That in literature, and sculpture, and architecture, the Greeks attained not only the highest, but every form of beauty possible in art. However true it may be, that they attained the highest beauty, still the experience of modern times has shown, that there are other forms of beauty within the capabilities of art, than those bodied forth by Grecian genius. The enlightened critic will therefore look over the wide and diversified domain of art, with that enlarged and liberal view, which the expectation of seeing new forms of the beautiful developed, is calculated to inspire, and approve every beauty which seems such to his enlightened judgment, untrammelled by the rules of established criticism. It is in this spirit that I desire the works of Burns to be examined. And it is in this spirit that the world does, and will continue to examine them. There is a potency about them, which smites the heart, and makes it swell out of the shackles of cold criticism. They vindicate by their power, their high place in the temple of fame. The fame of Burns has been continually progressive. In Scotland every heart is warm at the name of their great national poet; and the world is now filled with a scarcely less warm admiration. "As the sun from out the orient Pours a wider, warmer light, In its deathless power serene, First Doon's banks and braes contain❜d it, BURNS AS A MAN. We have considered Burns as a poet, let us now consider him as a man. In his twenty-third year, we find him engaged in the business of flax-dresser in the little town of Irvine. His condition may be inferred from the following letter, written by him at that time to his father : "HONORED SIR, "I have purposely delayed writing, in the hope that I should have the pleasure of seeing you on New-Year's day; but work comes so hard upon us, that I do not choose to be absent on that account, as well as for some other little reasons, which I shall tell you at meeting. My health is nearly the same as when you were here, only my sleep is a little sounder, and on the whole I am rather better than otherwise, though I mend by very slow degrees. The weakness of my nerves has so debilitated my mind, that I dare neither review past wants, nor look forward into futurity; for the least anxiety or perturbation in my breast produces most unhappy effects on my whole frame. Sometimes, indeed, when for an hour or two my spirits are alightened, I glimmer a little into futurity; but my principal, and indeed my only pleasurable employment, is looking backwards and forwards in a moral and religious way: I am quite transported at the thought, that ere long, perhaps very soon, I shall bid an eternal adieu to all the pains, and uneasiness, and disquietudes of this weary life: for I assure you I am heartily tired of it; and, if I do not very much deceive myself, I could contentedly and gladly resign it. 'The soul, uneasy, and confin'd at home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.' It is for this reason I am more pleased with the 15th 16th and 17th verses of the 7th chapter of Revelations, than with any ten times as many verses in the whole Bible, and would not exchange the noble enthusiasm with which they inspire me, for all that this world has to offer. (As for this world, I despair of ever making a figure in it. I am not formed for the bustle of the busy, nor the flutter of the gay. I shall never again be capable of entering into such scenes. Indeed, I am altogether unconcerned at the thoughts of this life. (I foresee that poverty and obscurity probably await me, and I am in some measure prepared, and daily preparing to meet them, I have but just time and paper to return you my grateful thanks for the lessons of virtue and piety you have given me, which were too much neglected |