* After the lapse of a century from the period when this home-made lesson
book had nearly served its purpose at the fireside of William Burness, strange
to say, a printed copy of it, together with a short memoir of its compiler, is put
into the hands of the public from the same press which sends forth the present
work.
( 456 )
world through the pupil's immortal poem — "The Cotter's
Saturday Night." In his autobiography where he refers to the
earlier portion of his residence on this farm, the poet observes — ' ' I
was a good deal noted for a retentive memory, a stubborn, sturdy
something in my disposition, and an enthusiastic idiot-piety."
This latter expression scarcely needs explanation, for religious
creeds imparted to children are imbibed with little or no exercise
of reason on their part ; and as a natural consequence, " just as
the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." All the writings of Burns,
where religion is touched upon, manifest a rooted dislike to those
doctrines that pass for high orthodoxy in Scotland ; but although
he admits that the heat and indiscretion with which he soon
ventured to puzzle Calvinism, raised an early hue and cry of
heresy against him, he at same time records that " early ingrained
piety and virtue," down to a comparatively ripe period of his
manhood, "never failed to point out the line of innocence."
From the age of seventeen onwards he continued occasionally to
compose exquisite strains of devotion, some of which he after-
wards published, and from these it appears that if his piety
grasped no very certain standards of belief, it displayed a form
of culture fitted to suffuse his life with solemn and tender senti-
ments. These he was fond of illustrating in his letters to that
class of correspondents who professed a high regard for devotional
topics ; and to such his standard quotation was a passage of
eight lines of excellent verse in praise of Religion, which he had
copied as an exercise in penmanship at Dalrymple parish school,
when thirteen years old. "It is my favourite quotation (he
wrote to Mrs Dunlop)— I keep it constantly by me in my pro-
gress through life, against the day of battle and of war."
Thus far have we deemed it necessary to premise before intro-
ducing our readers to some notes of an interesting controversy
on the subject-matter of the present chapter, which kept the
newspaper press of our larger cities in a prolonged flutter, during
the early spring of 1872. The Dean of Westminster had come
down to Scotland with the avowed intention of persuading the
Presbyterians of this country to reform their notions of Kirk doc-
trine and polity, and under State auspices to adopt some
accommodating scheme of national religion in harmony with the
scientific culture and broad-visioned philosophy of the present day.
In one or more of his lectures delivered on the occasion, he gavo
( -t57 )
high praise to the " moderate " churchmen of last century, whom
he represented as divines and literary men far in advance of their
generation. He also claimed a Christian character of no mean
degree for the teaching influence of Burns and Sir Walter Scott,
who were — as he averred — -"as completely Scottish Churchmen,
in the larger sense of that term, as any he had named ; and alive
as they now are in their writings, they cannot be overlooked in
any history of the Scottish Church. The works of each of these
authors justitied his title to be considered not only as a poet-
prophet, but as a wise aud religious teacher. Burns (he added)
was indeed the prodigal son of the Church, but still he was her
genuine oflFspring. He who could pen ' Holy Willie's Prayer,'
and the ' Address to the Unco Guid,' which pierced through the
hollow cant and narrow pretensions of all Churches, with a sword
too trenchant perhaps, yet hardly too severe, shewed that he had
not lived in vain among the philosophical clergy and laity of last
century. If his religious writings and satires against rabid en-
thusiasts and self-righteous hypocrites do not express the theology
of Calvin, they certaiidy do enunciate the theology of the Sermon
on the Mount."
Language and sentiments like these were too much for the
evangelical multitudes in Scotland to sit patiently under ; so a
well-trained Professor of the Free Church College — a master of
scholastic fencing — was made the mouthpiece of his party, to
administer to the Dean "his quietus." That opponent-lecturer
quoted the 18th Article of the Church of England against the
Dean :— ' ' They are to be held accursed who say they can be saved
by the law or sect which they profess, so as that they conform
their lives to that law, and to the light of nature ; for Holy Scrip-
ture gives only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be
saved." He described the Moderate Churchmen of this and last
century as ' ' poor wretches who called themselves ministers of
Christ, and yet were ashamed to preach Him ! " And he "ob-
jected to Robert Burns as a religious teacher, because that poet
did not take his ground as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and as one desirous to follow Him. Burns (he supposed)was not
prepared to take that responsibility, and was too honest a man
to go further in the matter than his actual convictions warranted.
To the last, there was no indication in his life or writings that he
who had left the habit or tradition of his country's piety was
( 458 )
finding out or working out a new sphere of faith in Christ or
love to Christ, distinct from that which he condemned and de-
nounced. It miijlit have come before he died, but we did not see
it. Now, the blame for that was to be laid in the most precise
and stringent manner on Scotch Moderate Ministers. They did
their best to ruin Burns, and we abhorred them for it ! "
The above denial of Burns' Christianity brought forth angry
replies from some weak ministers of the establishment who tried
to show by extracts from the poet's letters to "Clarinda" arid
Mrs. Dunlop, that "he was a sincere believer in the divine mis-
sion of Christ — that his religion was not a ' perhaps,' nor a
' wish ' as Carlyle says, but a bosom-faith in God and in Jesus
Christ. " On the other hand, a writer in the Contemiwrary Re.v'mo
undertook to support the Free Church Professor in his allegation
that the blame of Burns' perdition lay at the door of the Moderate
ministers of Ayrshire ; and in that article a groundless story was
introduced to the effect that Burns had " confessed that allega-
tion to be a fact, and bitterly lamented the dreaded consequences
a short time before his death." About the same time, a writer
in BJnckiooocVs Magazine took up the theme somewhat in the
same strain, and absurdly endeavoured to trace the source of the
poet's irreligion and intemperate habits to his early associations
with Gavin Hamilton, Robert Aiken, and other laymen in his
near neighbourhood.
We trust that in the earlier paragraphs of this chapter, we
have satisfied the reader that if ever Burns "broke with the
ancient traditions of .Scottish piety," he did so long before he
came within range of alleged contagion through intercourse with
Moderate ministers or influential laymen of the same class. Ho
was acquainted with none such at the time of his sojourn in
Kirkoswald, where, at the age of eighteen, he "learned to look
unconcernedly on a large tavern bill, and to mix without fear in
a drunken squabble." Neither had he, when twenty-three years
old, mixed with any such, although at Irvine he had contracted
fellowship with some "whose society prepared him for overleap-
ing the bounds of rigid virtue which had hitherto restrained
him." It was not at the instigation of clerical friends or ruling
elders of the liberal school, a year or two later, that he composed
and circulated anonymously the Tv:a /iTen^s—" the first of hi.s
( 459 )
poetic offspring that saw the light." That production certainly
"met with a roar of applause " from the New Light party, and
may have been the occasion of introducing some of them to the
society of the poet, who soon avowed himself its author when he
witnessed its success.
In the same month of January, 1872, when the Lectures for
and against the Christianity of Burns were delivered which we
have tried to give the reader some idea of, a liberal minister of
high standing in the Established Church was the principal
speaker at the Burns' Club Anniversary Dinner, in Edinburgh.
In his address he quoted several passages from the bard's writ-
ings, which he characterised as important " contributions to the
influence of religion, engraved on the hearts of a whole people.
There are (he continued) three species of fools who receive no
encouragement, but much reproof from Burns, namely, (1) The
fool that hath said in his heart ' there is no God ; ' (2) The fool
that makes a mock at sin ; and (3) The fool that refuses to say —
' Thy will be done ! ' These are really the great practical ques-
tions of all Religions : and the man is either unpardonably unjust,
or unnoticingly stupid, who will insinuate that these questions
are treated by Burns otherwise than â– with the reverence that
befits their import. They are indeed treated by him with an
intensity of feeling, and aptness of language that will outlive far-
off generations uf professional preachers. We are told that Burns'
creed was unsound, and very scanty. Certainly it did not con-
tain anything like thirty-nine Articles, and I cannot say that
those he had were orthodox according to the standard of West-
minster. But we are all now getting accustomed to believe with
Burns that a good man will do good, whatever theology he may
work with ; and that influences of piety may be imbibed even
from the devoutness of heathenism, and stimulus in duty from
contemplating
'â– The moral works of black Gentoos and Pagan Turks."
Now-a-days we regard simjily with amusement the remarkable
person who looks upon all the world as the enemies of God, except-
ing himself and the brethren and sisterhood of his own little
persuasion. In Burns' days, however, this idea had to be done
battle for. He had to fight with peojile who maintained that a
man's orthodoxj- , or the reverse formed an essential element in
his ultimate salvation or perdition. He certainly never scrupled
( 460 )
to maintain the contrary. He declared continually that the
judgement to be passed on any individual before God and man
turns, not upon his opinions, but his character ; not upon his
faith, but his faithfulness ; not upon the Tightness or the wrong-
ness of his metai)hysics, but upon the goodness or badness of his
spirit. That we are able, in this country and at this day, to
affirm and act upon this idea, without much fear of annoyance,
â– we owe in no small degree to the clear-sightedness of Burns'
intellect, the healthiness of his moral instincts, and the courage
with which he asserted his convictions amid a community where
the profession of ' sound believing ' was reckoned the only safe
passport to favour with God and man."
EXCERPTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF BURNS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF
THE PRECEDING CHAPTER.
BuR.vs AS AN AVOWED Cheistian. — Only once in his poetry, and three times
in his Tjublished correspondence, has he made direct reference to Christ. The
one poetical instance occurs in his Cotter's Saturday Night, where he devotes a
stanza to the "Christian Volume," and makes pathetic allusion to the circum-
stance that . „ _, ,
" HE who bore m Heaven the second name
Had not on Earth whereon to lay His head."
The prose references are these:— "God is not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to everlasting life, consequently it must be in every
one's power to embrace His offer of ' everlasting life,' otherwise he could not,
in justice condemn those who did not. The Supreme Being has put the im-
mediate administration of all this [His scheme of salvation] for wise and good
ends known to Himself, into the hands of Jesus Christ, a great personage,
whose relation to Him we cannot comprehend, but whose relation to us is a
Guide and Saviour ; and who except for our own obstinacy and misconduct,
will bring us all through various ways, and by various means, to bliss at last."
— To Clatinda, Jany., 17S8.
"Though to appearance, Christ was the obscurest and most illiterate of our
species jTet the sublimitv, excellence, and purity of his doctrine and precepts
—unparalleled by all the aggregate wisdom and learning of many preceding
ages— prove that Christ was from God."— To Mrs Dunlop, '2Ut June, 1789.
"If there is another life, it must only be for the just, the benevolent, the
amiable and the humane : What a flattering idea then is a world to come !
Would to God I as firmly believed it as I ardently wish it! Jesus Christ, thou
amiablest of characters! I trust thou art no impostor, and that thy revelation
of blissful scenes of existence beyond death and the grave is not one of the
many impositions which, time after time, have been palmed on credulous
mankind. I trust that in thee ' shall all tho families of the earth be blessed '
bv bein" connected together in a better world, where every tie that bound
heart to%eart in this state of existence shall be— far beyond our present con-
ceptions—more endearing."— ZV Mrs Dunlop, I3th Deer., 1789.
Burns as a Sceptic— "His Faith a great Perhaps."— "However respec-
table individuals in all ages have been, I have ever looked on Mankind in the
lump to be nothing better than a foolish, headstrong, credulous, unthinking
mob, and their universal belief has ever had extremely little weight with me."
—To Mrs Dunlop, 1st Jany., 17S9.
( 4G1 )
" I trust the spring will renew your shattered frame and make your friends
happy. You and I have often agreed that life is no great blessing on the
whole. The close of life, indeed, to a reasoning eye is ' dark as chaos ; ' but
an honest man has nothing to fear. If he lie down in the grave, the whole
man a piece of broken machinery, to moulder in the clods of the valley, be It
so : at least there is an end of pain, care, woes, and wants. If that part of us
called ' Mind ' does survive the apparent destruction of the man — away with
old-wife prejudices and tales! Ever}' age and every nation has had a different
set of stories ; and as the many are always weak, of consequence they have
often — perhaps always — been deceived. A man conscious of having acted an
honest part among his fellow-creatures — even granting that he may have been
the sport, at times, of passions and instincts — he goes to a great unknown
Being who could have no other end in giving him existence but to make him
happj- — who gave him those passions and instincts and well knows their force."
—To Robert Mttir, 7th March, 17S8.
"All my fears and cares are of this world; if there is another, an honest
man has nothing to fear from it. I hate a man that wishes to be a Deist ;
[Atheist ?] but I fear, every fair, unprejudiced enquirer must in some degree
be a sceptic, It is not that there are any very staggering arguments against the
immortality of man ; but — like electricity, phlogiston, &c. — the subject is so
involved in darkness, that we want data to go upon. One thing frightens me
much — that we are to live for ever, seems 'too good news to be true.' That
we are to enter into a new scene of existence where, exempt from want and
pain, we shall enjoy ourselves and our friends without satiety or separation —
how much should I be indebted to any one who could fully assure me that
this is certain." — To Alexr. Cunningham, 16th Feb., 1790.
Burns as a Sentimental Beltgionist. — As the quotations which might be
given under this head are very abundant, the following samples must serve
our purpose: — "I am quite transported at the thought that ere long, very
soon, I shall bid an eternal adieu to all the pains and uneasiness, and disquie-
tudes of this weary life. It is for this reason I am more pleased with the 1.5th,
16th, and 17th verses of the 7th chapter of Revelations than with any ten times
as many verses in the whole Bible, and would not exchange the noble enthusi-
asm with which they inspire me for all that this world has to offer." — To the
poefs father, Dec. 27th, 1781.
" If ever any young man, on the vestibule of this world, chance to throw his
eye over these pages, let him pay a warm attention to these observations, as I
assure him they are the fruit of a poor devil's dear-bought experience. In the
first place, let my pupil, as he tenders his own peace, keep up a regular, warm
intercourse with the Deity." — Commonplace Book, Octr., 178.5.
•'A correspondence fix'd wi' Heaven is sure a noble anchor." — May, 1786.
"You have shown me one thing that was to be demonstrated, namely, that
strong pride of reasoning, with a little affectation of singularity, may mislead
the best of hearts. I likewise, since you and I were first acquainted, in the
pride of despising old women's stories, ventured in the ' daring path Spinoza
trod ; ' but experience of the weakness — not the strength — of human powers
make me glad to grasp at revealed religion." — To James Candlish, ilst March,
1787.
"Religion has not only been all my life my chief dependence, but my dearest
enjoyment. I have indeed been the luckless victim of wayward follies; but
alas ! I have been ever more fool than knave. A mathematician without re-
ligion ia a probable character; an irreligious poet is a monster." — To Mrs
Dunlop, 12th Feb., 17SS.
"It is this way of thinking that makes religion so precious to the poor,
miserable children of men. If it is a mere phantom existing only in the heated
imagination of enthusiasm — 'What truth on earth so precious as the lie?'
My idle reasonings sometimes make me sceptical ; but the necessities of my
heart give the cold philosophisings the lie."— 7*0 Mrs Dunlop, IGth Aug., 1788.
( 462 )
"The evidences of thosG awful ami important mysteries — a Hod that made
all things, man's immaterial and immortal nature, and a world of weal or woe
beyond the grave — which I am most partial to, are the proofs that wo deduce
by dint of our own prowess, from external nature. Still I am a very sincero
believer in the Bible ; but I am drawn by the conviction of a man, not by the
halter of an ass." — To Mrs Dmilop, \&t. Jamj., 1789.
"Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, this is
ray criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any indi-
vidual in it, this is my measure of iniquity. What think you, madam, of my
creed? I have just heard Mr. Kirkpatrick give a sermon. He is a man
famous for his benevolence, and I revere him ; but from such ideas of my
Creator, good Lord, deliver mo ! Keligion, my honoured friend, is sorely a
simple business, as it equally concerns the ignorant and the learned, the poor
and the rich. That there is an incomprehensibly Groat Being, to whom I owo
my existence, and that Ho must be intimately acquainted with the operations
and progress of the internal machinery, and consequent outward deportment
of this creature which He hath made, — these are, I think, self-evident pro-
positions. That there is a real and eternal distinction between virtue and
vice, and consequently, that I am an accountable creature ; and that from the
evident imperfection — nay, positive injustice in the administration of affairs,
both in the natural and moral worlds, there must be a retributive scene of
existence beyond the grave, must, I think, be allowed by every one who will
give himself a moment's reflection." — To Mrs Dunlop, 2lst June. 1789.
" I hope and believe that there is a state of existence beyond the grave
where the worthy of this life will renew their former intimacies, with this en-
dearing addition that ' we meet to part no more.' I am so convinced that an
unshaken faith in the doctrines of religion is not only necessary by making us
better men, but also by making us happier men, that I shall take care that
vour little godson, ancl every little creature that shall call me father, shall bo
taught them."— 70 Mrs Dunlop, 22nd Aug., 1792.
" I do not remember, my dear Cunningham, that you and I ever talked ou
the subject of religion at all I know some who laugh at it as the trick of the
crafty /«M), to lead the undiscerning manij; or at most, as an uncertain obscur-
ity which mankind can never know anything of, and with which they are fools
if they give themselves much to do. Nor would I quarrel with a man for his
irreligion any more than I would for his want of a musical ear. I would re-
gret that he was shut out from what, to me and others, were superlative
sources of enjoyment. These are no ideal pleasures, they are real delights ;
and I ask what of the delights among the sons of men are superior — not to say
equal — to them. And they have this precious, vast addition, that conscious
virtue stamps them for her own, and lays hold on them to bring herself into
the presence of the witnessing, judging, approving God." — To Alexr. Cunning-
ham, 25th Feb., 1794.
" What a transient business is life ! Very lately I was a boy; but t'other
day I was a young man ; and I already begin to feel the rigid Ubre and stiffen-
ing joints of old age coming fast o'er my frame. With all my follies of youth,
and I fear, a few vices of manhood, still, I congratulate myself on having had,
in early days. Religion strongly impressed on my mind. I have nothing to say
to any one as to v^hich sect he belongs, or what creed he believes ; but I look
on the man who is firmly persuaded of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness super-
intending and directing every circumstance that can happen in his lot — I
felicitate such a man as having a solid foundation for his mental enjoyment ;
a firm prop and sure stay in the hour of difTieulty, trouble ami distress; and a
never-failing anchor of hope when he looks beyond the grave." — To Mrs
Dunlop, \st Jany., 1795.
( ^G3 )
III.-THE " WHISTLE " CONTEOVERSY EXAMINED.
" I've been at drucken writers' feasts,
Nay, been bitcli-fou 'mang godly Priests —
Wi' reverence be it spoken —
I've even joined the honour'd jorum,
^^lien mighty Squireships of the quorum
Their hydra-drouth did slocken ! "
This stanza was penned by Burns in 1786, before he had formed
acquaintanceship with the gentry and " drucken vrriters " of
Edinburgh. Here he seems to record facts in his earlier history
which might countenance those grave charges against the " New
Light " ministers and certain jolly lajonen of Ayrshire, which are
discussed in our pi-eceding chapter. But we believe that no
intelligent reader of the inimitable burlesque poem of which the
quoted verse forms part, can ever regard the latter as a piece of
veritable autobiography. A fair allowance will be made for
artistic treatment, under sanction of the poetic license. At same
time, so skilfully could Burns manipulate the productions of his
muse, that in those instances of narrative song where he makes
himself an actor in the piece, such as
" Willie brew'd a peck o' maut,
And Bab and Allan cam to pree,"
or his ballad of The Whistle, in which he personally mixes with
the contending trio as witness and umpire of the combat, it is
next to impossible for the reader to distinguish between the pas-
sages that really record facts, and those that are woven from
the poet's fancy for sake of pictorial eflfect. No sane person
can ever doubt the main fact recorded in the first of these, that
Willie Nicol, Allan ISIasterton, and the poet Burns held a blithe
meeting such as is there depicted ; but few will believe that
Nicol himself " brewed the maut " which was consumed on that
occasion, or that it had the effect of throwing all or any of them
under their chairs. The ballad of The Whistle narrates a similar
scene that occurred at a Squire's table, and its poetic embellish-
ments are so artfully dovetailed with the facts, that the most
analytical of critics might fail to separate the real from the
E2
( 4G4 )
imaginary. Small wonder therefore ia it that (except to a very
few who knew otherwise) during the poet's lifetime, and for many
years after his death, every reader of the poem assumed that
Burns' presence as "witness of the fray" at Friar's Carse on
16th October, 1789, was a sterling fact, and not a mere poetic
fiction, as it now is proved to have been. Dr. Currie, in his bio-
graphy of Burns, treats the matter of the poet's real presence on
that occasion as an admitted fact, but his information on that