humble, displays the philosophic melancholy which so generally forms the poetical temperament, and that buoyant and ambitious spirit which indicates a mind conscious of its strength. At Irvine, Burns at this time possessed a single room for his lodgings, rented, perhaps, at the rate of a shilling a week. He passed his days in constant labour as a flax-dresser, and his food consisted chiefly of oatmeal, sent to him from his father's family. The store of this humble, though wholesome nutriment, it appears, was nearly exhausted, and he was about to borrow till he should obtain a supply. Yet even in this situation, his active imagination had formed to itself pictures of eminence and distinction. His despair of making a figure in the world, shows how ardently he wished for honourable fame; and his contempt of life, founded on this despair, is the genuine expression of a youthful and generous mind. In such a state of reflection, and of suffering, the imagination of Burns naturally passed the dark boundaries of our earthly horizon, and rested on those beautiful representations of a better world, where there is neither thirst, nor hunger, nor sorrow, and where happiness shall be in proportion to the capacity of happiness.

Unhappily for himself and for the world, it was not always in the recollections of his virtuous home and the study of his Bible, that Burns sought for consolation amidst the heavy distresses which "his youth was heir to." Irvine is a small seaport; and here, as at Kirkoswald, the adventurous spirits of a smuggling coast, with all their jovial habits, were to be met with in abundance. "He contracted some acquaintance," says Gilbert, "of a freer manner of thinking and living than

He had been used to, whose society prepared him for overleaping the bounds of rigid virtue, which had hitherto restrained him.

I owe to Mr Robert Chambers (author of Traditions of Edinburgh) the following note of a conversation which he had in June 1826, with a respectable old citizen of this town:-" Burns was, at the time of his residence among us, an older-looking man than might have been expected from his age-very darkly complexioned, with a strong dark eye-of a thoughtful appearance, amounting to what might be called a gloomy attentiveness; so much so, that when in company which did not call forth his brilliant powers of conversation, he might often be seen, for a considerable space together, leaning down on his palm, with his elbow resting on his knee. He was in common silent and reserved; but when he found a man to his mind, he constantly made a point of attaching himself to his company, and endeavouring to bring out his powers. It was among women alone that he uniformly exerted himself, and uniformly shone. People remarked even then, that when Robert Burns did speak, he always spoke to the point, and in general with a sententious brevity. His moody thoughtfulness, and laconic style of expression, were both inherited from his father, who, for his station in life, was a very singular person.

Burns himself thus sums up the results of his residence at Irvine:" From this adventure I learned something of a town life; but the principal thing which gave my mind a turn, was a friendship I formed with a young fellow, a very noble character, but a hapless son of misfortune. He was the son of a simple mechanic; but a great man in the

neighbourhood, taking him under his patronage, gave him a genteel education, with a view of bettering his situation in life. The patron dying just as he was ready to launch out into the world, the poor fellow in despair went to sea; where, after a variety of good and ill fortune, a little before I was acquainted with him, he had been set ashore by an American privateer, on the wild coast of Connaught, stripped of every thing...

His mind was fraught with independence, magnanimity, and every manly virtue. I loved and admired him to a degree of enthusiasm, and of course strove to imitate him. In some measure I succeeded; I had pride before, but he taught it to flow in proper channels. His knowledge of the world was vastly superior to mine; and I was all attention to learn. He was the only man I ever saw who was a greater fool than myself, where woman was the presiding star; but he spoke of illicit love with the levity of a sailor-which hitherto I had regarded with honour. Here his friendship did me a mischief." Professor Walker, when preparing to write his Sketch of the Poet's Life, was informed by an aged inhabitant of Irvine, that Burns's chief delight while there was in discussing religious topics, particularly in those circles which usually gather in a Scotch churchyard after service. The senior added, that Burns commonly took the high Calvinistic side in such debates; and concluded with a boast, that "the lad" was indebted to himself in a great measure for the gradual adoption of more liberal opinions. It was during the same period, that the poet was first initiated in the mysteries of free"which was, masonry, says his brother," his first introduction to the life of a boon companion." He was introduced to St Mary's Lodge of Tar

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bolton by John Ranken, a very dissipated man, of considerable talents, to whom he afterwards indited a poetical epistle, which will be noticed in its place.

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Rhyme, Burns says, "I had given up;

"

(on going to Irvine ;)" but meeting with Ferguson's Scottish Poems, I strung anew my wildlysounding lyre with emulating vigour." Neither flaxdressing nor the tavern could keep him long from his proper vocation. But it was probably this accidental meeting with Ferguson, that in a great measure finally determined the Scottish character of Burns's poetry; and, indeed, but for the lasting sense of this obligation, and some natural sympathy with the personal misfortunes of Ferguson's life, it would be difficult to account for the very high terms in which Burns always mentions his productions.

Shortly before Burns went to Irvine, he, his brother Gilbert, and some seven or eight young men besides, all of the parish of Tarbolton, had formed themselves into a society, which they called the Bachelor's Club; and which met one evening in every month for the purposes of mutual entertainment and improvement. That their cups were but modestly filled is evident; for the rules of the club did not permit any member to spend more than threepence at a sitting. A question was announced for discussion at the close of each meeting; and at the next they came prepared to deliver their sentiments upon the subject-matter thus proposed. Burns and David Sillar (to whom the "Epistle to Davie, a brother-poet" was afterwards addressed-and who subsequently published a volume of verses not without merit) were employed by the rest to draw up the regulations

D

of the Society and some stanzas prefixed to Sillar's Scroll of Rules "first introduced Burns and him to each other as brother rhymers. Of the sort of questions discussed, we may form some notion from the minute of one evening, still extant in Burns's hand-writing.-QUESTION FOR HALLOWE'EN, (Nov. 11, 1780.)-"Suppose a young man, bred a farmer, but without any fortune, has it in his power to marry either of two women, the one a girl of large fortune, but neither handsome in person, nor agreeable in conversation, but who can manage the household affairs of a farm well enough; the other of them a girl every way agreeable in person, conversation, and behaviour, but without any fortune: which of them shall he choose?" Burns, as may be guessed, took the imprudent side in this discussion.

"On one solitary occasion, says he, " we resolved to meet at Tarbolton in July, on the racenight, and have a dance in honour of our society. Accordingly, we did meet, each one with a partner, and spent the night in such innocence and merriment, such cheerfulness and good-humour, that every brother will long remember it with delight. There can be no doubt that Burns would not have patronized this sober association so long,

*I quote from a letter of Mr Sillar, 29th November 1828. The lines

"Of birth and blood we do not boast,

No gentry does our Club afford,

But ploughmen and mechanics we

In nature's simple dress record:

Let nane e'er join us who refuse

To aid the lads that haud the ploughs,

To choose their friends and wale their wives,

To ease the labours of their lives.

These lines, therefore, (hitherto ascribed to Burns), are in fact the lawful property of Mr Sillar.