Spare my love, ye winds that blaw, When the shades of evening creep He will think on her he loves, There is no great matter or merit, some one may say, such lines as these-nor is there; but they express sweet enough some natural sentiments,-and what more would y have in a song? You have had far more in some songs: which we have given the go-by; but we are speaking no the class of the simply pleasant; and on us their effect is that of a gentle light falling on a pensive place, when the are no absolute clouds in the sky, and no sun visible eith but when that soft effusion, we know not whence, makes whole day that had been somewhat sad, serene, and remi us that it is summer. Believing you feel as we do, we do fear to displease you by quoting "The Tither Morn." "The tither morn, when I, forlorn, Aneath an aik sat moaning, I didna trow I'd see my jo, Beside me, 'gain the gloaming. But he sae trig, lap o'er the rig, And dautingly did cheer me, To see my lad so near me. His bonnet he, a thought ajee, Cock'd sprush when first he clasp'd me; And I, I wat, wi' fainness grat, While in his grips he press'd me. Hae wish'd sin' Jock departed; As short-syne broken-hearted. Fu' aft at e'en wi' dancing keen, In absence o' my dearie. But praise be blest ! my mind's at rest, At kirk and fair, I'se aye be there, We believe that the most beautiful of his songs are dearest to the people, and these are the passionate and the pathetic; ɔut there are some connected in one way or other with the ender passion, great favourites too, from the light and lively ip to the humorous and comic-yet among the broadest of that class there is seldom any coarseness-indecency never-vulgar you may call some of them, if you please; they were not ntended to be genteel. Flirts and coquettes of both sexes are of every rank; in humble life the saucy and scornful toss heir heads full high, or "go by like stour;" "for sake o' gowd she left me" is a complaint heard in all circles; 'although the night be ne'er sae weet, and he be ne'er sae veary O," a gentleman of a certain age will make himself idiculous by dropping on the knees of his corduroy breeches; Auntie would fain become a mother, and in order thereunto a vife, and waylays a hobbletehoy; daughters the most filial hink nothing of breaking their mothers' hearts as their grandnothers' were broken before them; innocents, with no other eaching but that of nature, in the conduct of intrigues in which verily there is neither shame nor sorrow, become systematic nd consummate hypocrites not worthy to live—single ; lespairing swains are saved from suicide by peals of laughter rom those for whom they fain would die, and so get noosed; -and surely here is a field-indicated and no more-wide enough for the Scottish Comic Muse; and would you know how productive to the hand of genius, you have but to read Burns. In one of his letters he says, "If I could, and I believe I do t as far as I can, I would wipe away all tears from all eyes." His nature was indeed humane; and the tendernesses and indlinesses apparent in every page of his poetry, and most ■f all in his songs-cannot but have a humanising influence ▪n all those classes exposed, by the necessities of their condiion, to many causes for ever at work to harden or shut up the his & heart. Burns does not keep continually holding up to the the evils of their lot, continually calling on them to endurer to redress; but while he stands up for his Order, its virt and its rights, and has bolts to hurl at the oppressor, light is to inspire contentment. In that solemn "Dirge," spiritual being, suddenly spied in the gloom, seems an Ap rition, made sage by sufferings in the flesh, sent to instruc:: and all who breathe that "Man was made to mourn." "Many and sharp the numerous ills More pointed still we make ourselves, Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn! See yonder poor o'erlabour'd wight, And helpless offspring mourn." But we shall suppose that "brother of the earth" rotten, s forgotten by the "bold peasantry their country's pride," work without leave from worms. At his work we think hear a stalwart tiller of the soil humming what must be a ve of Burns. "Is there, for honest poverty, That hangs his head, and a' that? Wear hoddin grey, and a' that; Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, A man's a man for a' that. Then let us pray that come it may, As come it will for a' that, That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, May bear the gree, and a' that. For a' that, and a' that, It's coming yet for a' that, That man to man, the warld o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that." A spirit of Independence reigned alike in the Genius and he Character of Burns. And what is it but a strong sense of what is due to Worth apart altogether from the distinctions of society-the vindication of that Worth being what he felt to be the most honoured call upon himself in life? That sense ›nce violated is destroyed, and therefore he guarded it as a acred thing-only less sacred than Conscience. Yet it belongs to Conscience, and is the prerogative of Man as Man. Sometimes it may seem as if he watched it with jealousy, and n jealousy there is always weakness, because there is fear. But it was not so; he felt assured that his footing was firm nd that his back was on a rock. No blast could blow, no air ould beguile him from the position he had taken up with his vhole soul in "its pride of place." His words were justified y his actions, and his actions truly told his thoughts his were a bold heart, a bold hand, and a bold tongue; for in the obility of his nature he knew that, though born and bred in hovel, he was the equal of the highest in the land; as he was—and no more-of the lowest, so that they too were MEN. or hear him speak-"What signify the silly, idle gewgaws f wealth, or the ideal trumpery of greatness! When fellowartakers of the same nature fear the same God, have the same enevolence of heart, the same nobleness of soul, the same deestation at everything dishonest, and the same scorn at everying unworthy-if they are not in the dependence of absolute eggary, in the name of common sense are they not EQUALS? nd if the bias, the instinctive bias of their souls, were the ame way, why may they not be FRIENDS ?" He was indeed rivileged to write that "Inscription for an Altar to Indepenence." "Thou of an independent mind, With soul resolved, with soul resign'd Prepared Power's proudest frown to brave, Virtue alone who dost revere, Thy own reproach alone dost fear, Approach this shrine, and worship here." Scotland's adventurous sons are now as proud of this mer feature of his poetry as of all the pictures it contains of the native country. Bound up in one volume it is the Manual Independence. Were they not possessed of the same spi they would be ashamed to open it; but what they wear the win, what they eat they earn; and if frugal they be-and t is the right word—it is that on their return they may buil house on the site of their father's hut, and, proud to remembe that he was poor, live so as to deserve the blessings of t children of them who walked with him to daily labour what was then no better than a wilderness, but has now be made to blossom like the rose. Ebenezer Elliott is no flatter -and he said to a hundred and twenty Scotsmen in Sheffiel met to celebrate the birth-day of Burns "Stern Mother of the deathless dead! Where stands a Scot, a freeman stands ; No wicked plunder need thy sons, To save the wretch whom mercy spurns; No classic lore thy little ones, Who find a Bard in Burns. Their path though dark, they may not miss; There are, it is true, some passages in his poetry, and in his letters, in which this Spirit of Independence partai too much of pride, and expresses itself in anger and s These, however, were but passing moods, and he did not lo to cherish them; no great blame had they been more freque and permanent-for his noble nature was exposed to ma causes of such irritation, but it triumphed over them all. few indignant flashes broke out against the littleness of great; but nothing so paltry as personal pique inspired with feelings of hostility towards the highest orders. His an imagination that clothed high rank with that dignity wh some of the degenerate descendants of old houses had forgotte and whenever true noblemen "reverenced the lyre" grasped the hand of the peasant who had received it f |