fame length that is fo poignant, corred, and elegant. The ftyle is nervous, and fo much elevated, that fome critics have spoken of it as too heroic for a fatire; but this circumstance, like the ftyle of the Lutrin, or The Rape of the Lock, by exciting ridicule produces contempt; while it by no means diminishes the abhorrence which is due to fuch crimes. Buchannan wrote a great variety of little poems, and many of them have fo much of the epigrammatic point, that the reader must be both surprised and pleafed to fee that the fame author poffeffed likewife fo much of the true elegiac vein as in his Illa mihi femper prefenti dura Neæra;' fo much of the ancient fimplicity as in Jephtes and Baptiftes; and fo much of the most elevated fublime, as in his Sphæra, and his Paraphrafe of the Pfalms of David.

"When we take a view of Buchannan as a hiftorian, it may be proper to obferve, that no hiftory will ever be valuable for the compofition, that does not exhibit either philofophic views of human nature, or beautiful pictures of

interefting events. In both characters the merit of Buchannan is confpicuous. The outlines, for instance, of the excellent treatise concerning crimes and punishments, are contained in Buchannan's fhort remarks upon the tortures that were inflicted upon the murderers of James the First *. And his account of the taking of Dum barton caftle by Craufurd, is a more ftriking picture of an inter. efting event, than any that has fince been made of it by very able writers. His history has been much read and admired by foreigners †, as well as by his own countrymen.

"It must be acknowledged, that there are fome things in his hiftory which are inaccurate, and others which are false; but before he be condemned for them the following circumftances ought to be confidered: First; his inaccuracies have been difcovered in confequence of examining evidence to which he had not accefs. Second; in his ancient history he followed what he thought to be the best accounts of other writers, and only gave them a claffic drefs. The

modern

modern cry, therefore, that the ancient history of Scotland is fabulous, can never be a juft charge against him; for, if he had not related what was handed down to him, or if he had been a fceptic without the evidence of records, he would not have been a hiftorian, but a writer of romance. Thirdly; the rage of civil and religious party was fo violent in his own time, that it was often impoffible to know the truth; and yet h's general account of difputed events appears, to the most caniid and beft in formed in modern times, to be well founded. If he had not the means

of knowing the truth exactly, we may lament his fituation, but can not blame his integrity, or cease to admire the purity, the vigour, and the elegance of his ftyle.

"Upon the whole; after making every just allowance for the thades in Buchannan's character, he must be confidered, by every impartial reader, as one of the most illuftrious perfons which this if and has produced; and there is hardly perhaps another nation that can give an example of the powers of writing profe and verfe, united in the fame man, in fo diftinguished a man

ner*."

"R

OBERT BURNS was, as is well known, the fon of a farmer in Ay fhire, and afterwards himself a farmer there; but having been unsuccessful, he was about to emigrate to Jamaica. He had previously however attracted fome notice by his poetical talents in the vicinity where he lived; and having published a small volume of his poems at Kilmarnock, this drew upon him more general attention. In confequence of the encouragement he received, he repaired to Edinburgh, and there published by fubfcription an improved and enlarged edition of his poems, which met with extraordinary fuccefs. By the profits arising from the fale of this edition, he was enabled to enter on

a farm in Dumfriesfhire; and having married a perfon to whom he had been long attached, he retired, to devote the remainder of his life to agriculture. He was again however unfuccefsful; and abandoning his farm, he removed into the town of Dumfries, where he filled an inferior office in the excife, and where he terminated his life in July 1796, in his thirty-eighth year.

"The ftrength and originality of his genius procured him the notice of many perfons diftinguished in the republic of letters, and among others, that of Dr. Moore, well known for his Views of Society and Manners on the Continent of Europe, for his Zeluco, and various other works. To this gentleman

our

our poet addreffed a letter, after his firft vifit to Edinburgh, giving a hiftory of his life, up to the period of his writing. In a compofition never intended to fee the light, elegance or perfect correctness of compofition will not be expected. Thefe, however, will be compenfated by the opportunity of feeing our poet, as he gives the incidents of his life, unfold the peculiarities of his character, with all the careless vigour and open fincerity of his mind.

"Mauchline, 2d Auguft, 1787.

" SIR,

"For fome months paft I have -been rambling over the country, but I am now confined with fome lingering complaints, originating, as I take it, in the ftomach. To divert my fpirits a little in this miferable fog of ennui, I have taken a whim to give you a hiftory of my felf. My name has made some little noife in this country; you have done me the honour to intereft yourself very warmly in my behalf; and I think a faithful account of what character of a man I am, and how I came by that character, may perhaps amufe you in an idle moment. I will give you an honeft parrative, though I know it will be often at my own expence; for I affure you, Sir, I have, like Solomon, whofe character, excepting in the trifling affair of cuifdom, I fometimes think I refemble, I have, I fay, like him turned my eyes to behold madness and folly, and, like him too, frequently faken hands with their intoxicating friend fhip.

* *

*

After you have perufed thefe pages, fhould you think them trifling and impertinent, I only beg leave to tell you, that the poor author wrote them under fome twitching qualms of confcience, arifing from a fufpi

cion that he was doing what he ought not to do; a predicament he has more than once been in before.

"I have not the most distant pretenfions to affume that character which the pye-coated guardians of efcutcheons call, a Gentleman. When at Edinburgh laft winter, I got acquainted in the herald's office, and looking through that granary of honours, I there found almoit every name of the kingdom; but for me,

My ancient but ignoble blood Has crept thro' icoundrels ever fince the

fl od.'

Gules, purpure, argent, &c. quite difowned me.

"My father was of the north of Scotland, the fon of a farmer, and was thrown by early misfortunes on the world at large; where, after many years wanderings and fojourn ings, he picked up a pretty large quantity of obfervation and experience, to which I am indebted for moft of my little pretenfions to wifdom.-I have met with few who understood men, their manners, and their ways, equal to him; but ftubborn, ungainly integrity, and headlong ungovernable irafcibility, are difqualifying circumftances; confequently I was born a very poor man's fon. For the first fix or feven years of my life, my father was gardener to a worthy gentleman offmall eftate in the neighbourhood of Avr. Had he continued in that ftation, I must have marched off to be one of the little underlings about a farm-houfe; but it was his dearest wifh and prayer to have it in his power to keep his children under his own eye, till they could difcern between good and evil; fo with the affiftance of his generous mafter, my father ventured on a small farm on his eftate. At thofe years I was by no means a favourite with any

body.

Body. I was a good deal noted for a retentive memory, a stubborn fturdy fomething in my difpofition, and an enthusiaftic idiot pietyI fay idiot piety, because I was then but a child. Though it coft the schoolmafter fome thrashings, I Inade an excellent English scholar; and by the time I was ten or eleven years of age, I was a critic in fubftantives, verbs, and particles. In my infant and boyith days too, I owed much to an old woman who refided in the family, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and fuperftition. She had, I fuppofe, the largest collection in the country of tales and fongs concerning devils, ghofts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks, fpunkies, kelpies, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths, apparitions, cantraips, giants, inchanted towers, dragons, and other trunipery. This cultivated the latent feeds of poetry; but had fo strong an effect on my imagination, that to this hour, in my nocturnal rambles, I fometimes keep a fharp look-out in fufpicious places; and though nobody can be more fceptical than I am in fuch matters, yet it often takes an effort of philofophy to shake off thefe idle terrors. The earliest compofition that I recollect taking pleasure in, was The Vifion of Mirza, and a hymn of Ad. difon's, beginning, How are thy fervants bleft, O Lord! I particularly remember one half-ftanza which was mufic to my boyish

ear

For though on dreadful whirls we hung High on the broken wave.-'

I met with these pieces in Mafon's English Collection, one of my fchoolbooks. The two first books I ever read in private, and which gave me more pleasure than any two books I ever read fince, were, The Life of 1800.

Hannibal, and The Hiftory of Sir William Wallace. Hannibal gave my young ideas fuch a turn, that I ufed to ftrut in raptures up and down after the recruiting drum and bag-pipe, and with myfelf tall enough to be a foldier; while the ftory of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice into my veins, which will boil along there till the floodgates of life that in eternal reft.

"Polemical divinity about this time was putting the country half mad; and I, ambitious of fhining in converfation parties on Sundays between fermons, at funerals, &c. ufed a few years afterwards to puzzie Calvinifm with fo much heat and indifcretion, that I raised a hue and cry of herefy against me, which has not ceafed to this hour.

"My vicinity to Avr was of fome advantage to me. My focial difpofition, when not checked by fome modifications of fpited pride, was, like our catechifm definition of infinitude, without bounds or limits. I formed feveral connexions with other younkers who poffeffed fuperior advantages; the youngling actors who were bufy in the rehearfal of parts in which they were fhortly to appear on the stage of life, where, alas! I was deftined to drudge be. hind the fcenes. It is not commonly at this green age, that our young gentry have a juft fenfe of the immenfe diftance between them and their ragged play-fellows. It takes a few dashes into the world, to give the young great nan hat gard for the poor, infignificant ftuproper, decent, unnoticing difrepid devils, the mechanics and peafantry around him, who were per haps born in the fame village. My young fuperiors never infulted the clouterly appearance of my ploughboy carcafe, the two extremes of which were often expofed to all the ር

ingle

inclemencies of all the feafons. They would give me firay volumes of books; among them, even then, I could pick up fome obfervations, and one, whofe heart I am fure not even the Munny Begum fcenes have tainted, helped me to a little French. Parting with thefe my young friends and benefactors, as they occafionally went off for the Eaft or Weft Indies, was often to me a fore affliction, but I was foon called to more ferions evils. My father's generous mafter died; the farm proved a ruinous bargain; and to clench the misfortune, we fell into the hands of a factor, who fat for the picture I have drawn of one in my Tale of Twa Dogs. My father was advanced in life when he married; I was the eldeft of feven children, and he, worn out by early hardships, was unfit for labour. My father's fpirit was foon irritated, but not easily broken. There was a freedom in his leafe in two years more, and to weather thefe two years, we retrenched our expenfes. We lived very poorly: I was a dexterous ploughman for my age; and the next eldeft to me was a brother (Gilbert) who could drive the plough very well, and help me to thrash the corn. A novel-writer might perhaps have viewed the fe fcenes with fome fatisfaction, but fo did not I; my indignation yet boils at the recollection of the f factor's infolent threatening letters, which used to fet us all in tears.

"This kind of life-the cheerlefs gloom of a hermit, with the unceafing moil of a galley flave, brought me to my fixteenth year; a little before which period I first committed the fin of Rhyme. You know our country cuftom of coupling a man and woman together as partners in the labours of harveft. In my fifteenth autumn, my partner

was a bewitching creature, a year younger than myfelf. My fcarci ty of English denies me the power of doing her juftice in that language, but you know the Scottifh idiom; fhe was a bennie, fweet fonfie lafs. In fhort, the altogether unwittingly to herself initiated me in that delicious paffion, which in fpite of acid difappointment, gia-horfe prudence, and book-worm philofophy, I hold to be the first of human joys, our deareft bleffing here below! How he caught the contagion Icannot tell; you medical people talk much of infection from breathing the fame air, the touch, &c. but I never exprefsly faid I loved her. Indeed I did not know myfelf why I liked fo much to loiter behind with her, when returning in the evening from our labours; why the tones of her voice made my heart-ftrings thrill like an Æolian harp; and particularly why my pulfe beat fuch a furious ratan when I looked and fingered over her little hand to pick out the cruel nettle-ftings and thiftles. Among her other love-infpiring qualities, the fung fweetly; and it was her favourite reel to which I attempted giving an embodied ve hicle in rhyme. I was not fo prefumptuous as to, imagine that I could make verfes like printed ones, compofed by men who had Greck and Latin; but my girl fung a fong which was faid to be compofed by a fmall country laird's fon, on one of his father's maids, with whom he was in love; and I faw no rea fon why I might not rhyme as well as he; for, excepting that he could fmear fheep, and catt peats, his father living in the moorlands, he had no more fcholar-craft than myfelf.

"Thus with me began love and poetry; which at times have been iny only, aud till within the laft twelve months have been my high

en