Part 8 (1/2)

Now Burns does exhibit his deep feelings, as I deested that it is just his strength of emotion, his command of pathos and readiness to employ it, by which Burns appeals to the rees withto do with my quotations!

”However excellent in their way” these quotations may be, they ”are not those that any Scotsman would trust to in support of the above proposition”; the above proposition being that ”Burns appeals to the hearts and feelings of the masses in a way that Scott never does”

You see, I have concluded rightly; but on wrong evidence Let us see, then, what evidence a Scots ”A Scotsman,” says ”JB” ”would at once appeal to ”Scots wha hae,” ”Auld Lang Syne,” and ”A man's a , 'fire-eyed fury' of 'Scots wha hae'; the glad, kind, ever fresh greeting of 'Auld Lang Syne'; the manly, sturdy independence of 'A man's aenthusiasm for Burns' name? I would rather,” says ”JB,” ”be the author of the above three lyrics than I would be the author of all Scott's novels”

Here, then, is the point at which I give up rant ”JB” his ”Auld Lang Syne” I grant the poignancy of--

”We twa hae paidl't i' the burn, Fraesun till dine: But seas between us braid hae roar'd Sin auld lang syne”

I see poetry and deep feeling in this I can see exquisite poetry and deep feeling in ”Mary Morison”--

”Yestreen when to the trehted ha', To thee , I sat, but neither heard nor saw: Tho' this was fair, and that was braw, And yor the toast a' the town, I sigh'd and said a them a'

'Ye are na Mary Morison'”

I see exquisite poetry and deep feeling in the Larooet the bride Was et the crown That on his head an hour has been; The et the child That smiles sae sweetly on her knee; But I'll remember thee, Glencairn, And a' that thou hast done for me!”

But--it is only honest to speak one's opinion and to hope, if it be wrong, for a better h order either in ”Scots wha hae” or ”A man's a man for a' that” The former seems toon the borders of poetry The latter, to be frank, strikes enuine, and in no proper sense poetry at all And ”JB” sience when he quotes it as an instance of deeply e

”Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, Wha struts, and stares, and a' that; Tho' hundreds worshi+p at his word, He's but a coof for a' that: For a' that, and a' that, His riband, star and a' that

The hs at a' that”

The proper attitude, I should iine, for a man ”of independentfor the moment that ribands and stars _are_ bestowed on imbeciles--would be a quiet disdain The above stanza re People of assured self-respect do not call other people ”birkies” and ”coofs,” or ”look and _laugh_ at a' that”--at least, not so loudly Compare these verses of Burns with Samuel Daniel's ”Epistle to the Countess of cuether--

”He that of such a height hath built his , As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame Of his resolved powers; nor all the wind Of vanity andHis settled peace, or to disturb the same; What a fair seat hath he, from whence he may The boundless wastes and wilds of men survey?

”And with how free an eye doth he look down Upon these lower regions of turht, ”A man's a man for a' that” unites the two defects of obviousness and inaccuracy As for the deep feeling, I hardly see where it co of wounded and blatant but militant self-esteem As for the _poetry_--well, ”JB”

had rather have written it than have written one-third of Scott's novels Let us take him at less than his word: he would rather have written ”A auntlet,” and ”The Heart of Midlothian”

_Ma sonties!_

CHARLES READE

March 10, 1894 ”The Cloister and the Hearth”

There is a venerable proposition--I never heard who invented it--that an author is finally judged by his best work This would be coo I picked up on a railway bookstall a copy of Messrs Chatto & Windus's new sixpenny edition of _The Cloister and the Hearth_, and a capital edition it is

I think I must have worn out more copies of this book than of any other; but somebody robbed me of the pretty ”Elzevir edition” as soon as it came out, and so I have only just read Mr Walter Besant's Introduction, which the publishers have considerately reprinted and thrown in with one of the cheapest sixpennyworths that ever came from the press Good wine needs no bush, and the bush which Mr Besant hangs out is a very sed attention

”I do not say that the whole of life, as it was at the end of the fourteenth century, may be found in the _Cloister and the Hearth_; but I do say that there is portrayed so vigorous, lifelike, and truthful a picture of a ti, in almost every particular from our own, that the world has never seen its like Toin the works of Scott”