Page images
PDF
EPUB

DEDICATED TO

Mrs. Andrew Carnegie.

The true woman, the devoted mother, the gifted wife whose intuitive faculties have been invaluable in aiding her husband in his benevolences, charities and herculean efforts for the improvement of the industrial order of mankind, unparalleled in the history of the world.

“When white robed peace mantles the earth, When nations shall not learn war any more, When man to man the world o'er, Shall brithers be for a' that, and Peace on earth and goodwill to man,' reigns,” all this so grandly aided by the Carnegies, must place that name high on the scroll of fame among the immortals.

[blocks in formation]

MONTGOMERY, HALLECK, CAMPBELL,
MRS. WM. R. SMITH, AND OTHERS,

AND EIGHTY APPRECIATIONS OF ROBERT BURNS, EACH OF

WHICH SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.

4th Edition-Enlarged. Published under the auspices

of the Jean Armour Burns Club.

WASHINGTON, D. C.,

GIBSON BROTHERS, PRINTERS,

1908.

This booklet is published for the purpose of helping people to think aright about Robert Burns.

At a meeting of the BURNS CLUB OF WASHINGTON, April 10, 1876, a committee was directed to publish in book form, as a contribution to BURNS, literature, the speech of JOHN WILSON, delivered to 70,000 people congregated on the banks of the Doon, on the return of BURNS' son from India, in 1844, which had never been published in this country; the great oration of Dr. WALLACE, delivered in Edinburgh, on BURNS' birth-day, 1872; together withi the speeches delivered and letters read before the Club on various anniversary occasions by the following distinguished statesmen and orators: Gen. JAS. A GARFIELD, Hon. J. G. BLAINE, Prof. JAMES MONROE, Hon. S. S. Cox, Hon. W. P. FRYE, Hon. J. PROCTOR KNOTT, and others.

In this Second Edition we add the essay of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the speeches of Lord Rosebery, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hon. George F. Hoar Wm. R. Smith, Hon. David B. Henderson, and Dr. MacLeod, and letter of Hon. E. R. Hoar, and sundry interesting poems.

The names of the above well-known orators, statesmen, and essayists are a sufficient guarantee that the contents of this little volume will make an excellent addenda to every edition of the poet's works.

The keen analysis of J. PRoctor Knott, the natural eloquence of W. P. FRYE, the witticisms of S. S. Cox, the scholarly parallels of JAS. A. GARFIELD, and the remarks of other distinguished gentlemen who have spoken for BURNS at the National Capital, are worthy of America. The progressive religious! thought in the oration of the Rev. Dr. WALLACE is inimitable in its way, and well worthy a place in connection with the masterly speech of glorious old CHRISTOPHER NORTH.

As a prelude we give the poem of JAMES MONTGOMERY:

ROBERT BURNS.

WHAT bird in beauty, flight, or song,
Can with the bard compare,

Who sang as sweet, and soar'd as
strong

As ever child of air?

His plume, his note, his form, could
BURNS

For whim or pleasure change:
He was not one, but all by turns,
With transmigration strange.

The Blackbird, oracle of spring,
When flower'd his moral lay;
The Swallow, wheeling on the wing,
Capriciously at play.

The Humming-bird, from bloom to
bloom,

Inhaling heavenly balm ;
The Raven, in the tempest's gloom;
The Halcyon in the calm.

In "auld Kirk Alloway," the Owl,
At witching time of night;
By "bonnie Doon," the earliest Fowl
That carroll'd to the light.

He was the Wren amidst the grove,
When in his homely vein;

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Speeches on Burns.

A GRAND demonstration in honor of the genius of ROBERT BURNS was suggested to the people of Scotland by the arrival from India of Col. WILLIAM BURNS, the poet's second son. August 6, 1844, was selected as a national holiday in Scotland. The great festival was presided over by the Earl of Eglinton, supported by hundreds of the nobility and men of letters, whose names filled columns of the public journals of that time. We select from the able speeches made on the occasion that of Prof. JOHN WILSON, of Blackwood's Magazine:

Were this festival to commemorate the genius of Burns, and it were asked what need is there of such commemoration, since his fame is co-extensive with the literature of our land, and inherent in every soul, I would answer that though admiration of the poet be indeed unbounded as the world, yet we, as compatriots to whom it is more especially dear, rejoice to see that universal sentiment concentrated in the voice of a great assembly of his own people-that we rejoice to meet in thousands to honor him who has delighted each single one of us all at his own hearth. But this commemoration expresses, too, if not a profounder, yet a more tender sentiment; for it is to welcome his sons to the land which their father illustrated-to indulge our national pride in a great name, while, at the same time, we gratify in full breasts the most pious of affections. It was customary, you know, in former times, to crown great poets. No such oblation honored our bard; yet he, too, tasted of human applause-he enjoyed its delights, and he knew the trials that attend it. Which, think you, would he have preferred? Such a celebration as this in his lifetime, or fifty years after his death? I cannot doubt that he would have preferred the posthumous, because the finer incense. The honor and its object are thus seen in their just proportions; for death gives an elevation which the candid soul of the poet would have considered, and that honor he would have reserved rather for his manes than encountered it

3

« PreviousContinue »