P7\
TO
CAPTAIN GRAHAM MOORE,
OF THE ROYAL NAVY.
When you were stationed on our coast
about twelve years ago, you first recommended
to my particular notice the poems of the Ayr-
shire ploughman, whose works, published for
the benefit of his widow and children, I now
present to you. In a distant region of the world,
whither the service of your country has carried
you, you will, I know, receive with kindness
this proof of my regard ; not perhaps without
some surprise on finding that I have been engaged
in editing these volumes, nor without some cu-
riosity to know how I was qualified for such an
undertaking. These points I will briefly explain.
Having occasion to make an excursion to the
county of Dumfries, in the summer of 1792,
I had there an opportunity of seeing and con-
versing with Burns. It has been my fortune to
vol. I. b know
Ti DEDICATION.
know some men of high reputation in literature,
as well as in public life ; but never to meet any-
one who, in the course of a single interview,
communicated to me so strong an impression of
the force and versatility of his talents. After
this I read the poems then published with greater
interest and attention, and with a full convic-
tion that, extraordinary as they are, they afford
but an inadequate proof of the powers of their
unfortunate author.
Four years afterwards, Burns terminated his
career. Among those whom the charms of his
genius had attached to him, was one with whom
I have been bound in the ties of friendship from
early life Mr. John Syme, of Ryedale. This
gentleman after the death of Burns, promoted
with the utmost zeal a subscription for the sup-
port of the widow and children, to which their
relief from immediate distress is to be ascribed;
and in conjunction with other friends of this
virtuous and destitute family, he projected the
publication of these volumes for their benefit,
by which the return of want might be prevented
or prolonged.
To this last undertaking an editor and bio-
grapher was wanting, and Mr. Syme's modesty
opposed a barrier to his assuming an office, for
which he was in other respects peculiarly quali-
fied.
DEDICATION. vii
fied. On this subject he consulted me ; and with
the hope of surmounting his objections, I offered
him my assistance, but in vain. Endeavours were
used to procure an editor in other quarters with-
out effect. The task was beset with considerable
difficulties, and men of established reputation
naturally declined an undertaking, to the per-
formance of which, it was scarcely to be hoped,
that general approbation could be obtained by
any exertion of judgment or temper.
To such an office, my place of residence, my
accustomed studies, and my occupations, were
certainly little suited ; but the partiality of Mr.
Syme thought me in other respects not unquali-
fied ; and his solicitations, joined to those of
our excellent friend and relation, Mrs. Dunlop,
and of other friends of the family of the poet, I
have not been able to resist. To remove diffi-
culties which would otherwise have been insur-
mountable, Mr. Syme and Mr. Gilbert Burns
made a journey to Liverpool, where they ex-
plained and arranged the manuscripts, and se-
lected such as seemed worthy of the press.
From this visit I derived a degree of pleasure
which has compensated much of my labour. I
had the satisfaction of renewing my personal
intercourse with a much valued friend, and of
forming an acquaintance with a man, closely
allied to Burns in talents as well as in blood, in
whose
Via DEDICATION.
whose future fortunes the friends of virtue will
not, I trust, be uninterested.
The publication of these volumes has been
delayed by obstacles which these gentlemen
could neither remove nor foresee, and which it
would be tedious to enumerate. At length the
task is finished. If the part which I have taken
shall serve the interests of the family, and re-
ceive the approbation of good men, I shall have
my recompense. The errors into which I have
fallen are not, I hope, very important, and they
will be easily accounted for by those who know
the circumstances under which this undertaking
has been performed. Generous minds will re-
ceive the posthumous works of Burns with can-
dour, and even partiality, as the remains of an
unfortunate man of genius, published for the
benefit of his family as the stay of the widow
and the hope of the fatherless.
To secure the suffrages of such minds, all
topics are omitted in the writings, and avoided
in the life of Burns, that have a tendency to
awake the animosity of party. In perusing the
following volumes no offence will be received,
except by those to whom even the natural erect
aspect of genius is offensive; characters that
will scarcely be found among those who are
educated to the profession of arms. Such men
do
DEDICATION. IX
do not court situations of danger, or tread in
the paths of glory. They will not be found in
your service, which, in our own days, emulates
on another element the superior fame pf the
Macedonian phalanx, or of the Roman legion,
and which has lately made the shores of Europe
and of Africa resound with the shouts of victory,
from the Texel to the Tagus, and from the
Tagus to the Nile !
The works of Burns will be received favour-
ably by one who stands in the foremost rank of
this noble service, and who deserves his station.
On the land or on the sea, I know no man more
capable of judging of the character or of the
writings of this original genius. Homer, and
Shakespeare, and Ossian, cannot always occupy
your leisure. These volumes may sometimes
engage your attention, while the steady breezes
of the tropics swell your, sails, and in another
quarter of the earth charm you with the strains
of nature, or awake in your memory the scenes
of your early days. Suffer me to hope that they
may sometimes recal to your mind the friend
who addresses you, and who bids you most
affectionately-r-adieu !
J. CURRIE.
Liverpool, 1st May, 1800.
ADVERTISEMENT.
IF the Editor has not mentioned by name the various persons
who subscribed to the former Editions, or who promoted the
subscription for the support of the Widow and Children of
Burns, this has arisen from his not being in possession of the
necessary documents. Mr. Alexander Cunningham ought,
however, to have been more particularly distinguished : He was
indefatigably zealous in promoting the interest of the Widow and
her Children, at a period when such services were highly import-
ant, and not a little difficult. The Editor is happy in an oppor-
tunity of doing this justice, tardy and imperfect though it be, to
en old friend, of the generous qualities of whose heart he retains
a just and lasting impression.
( si )
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
PREFATORY REMARKS ON THE CHARACTER AND
CONDITION OF THE SCOTTISH PEASANTRY.
Page.
Effects of the legal establishment of parochial
schools of the church establishment of the
absence of poor laws of the Scottish music and
national songs of the laws respecting marriage
and incontinence Observations on the domes-
tic and national attachments of the Scots ... 1
LIFE OF BURNS.
Narrative of his infancy and youth, by him-
self Narrative on the same subject, by his bro-
ther, and by Mr. Murdoch, of London, his
teacher Other particulars of Burns while resi-
dent in Ayrshire History of Burns while resi-
dent in Edinburgh, including letters to the Edi-
tor from Mr. Stewart and Dr. Adair History of
Burns while on the farm of Ellisland, in Dum-
fries-shire History of Burns while resident in
Dumfries his last illness death and character
with general reflections 33
Memoir respecting Burns, by a Lady . . . 251
Criticism on the Writings of Burns, including
observations on poetry in the Scottish dialect, and
some remarks on Scottish literature 264
Xii CONTENTS.
Page.
Tributary Verses on the Death of Burns, by
Mr. Roscoe 337
Appendix, No. 1 345
Appendix, No. II. including an extract of a
Poem addressed to Burns, by Mr. Telford, 357
Appendix, No. III. Letter from Mr. Gilbert
Burns to the Editor, approving his Life of his
Brother; with observations on the effects of
refinement of taste on the labouring classes of
men 375
INDEX TO THE POETRY
in this volume.
The Lass o' Ballochmyle 122
To Mary in Heaven 125
Poem on meeting with Lord Daer 134
On a young Lady residing on the Banks of the Devon . 175
On Gordon Castle 184
On the Birth-day of Prince Charles Edward . . . .186
Soliloquy on the Author's Marriage 195
The Song of Death , 216
LIFE
OF
ROBERT BURNS.
PREFATORY REMARKS.
Though the dialect, in which many of
the happiest effusions of Robert Burns are com-
posed, be peculiar to Scotland, yet his reputa-
tion has extended itself beyond the limits of
that country, and his poetry has been admired
as the offspring of original genius, by persons of
taste in every part of the sister islands. The
interest excited by his early death, and the dis-
tress of his infant family, have been felt in a
remarkable manner wherever his writings have
been known : and these posthumous volumes,
which give to the world his Works complete,
and which, it is hoped, may raise his Widow
and Children from penury, are printed and pub-
VOL. I. B lished
2 PREFATORY REMARKS.
lished in England. It seems proper, therefore,
to write the memoirs of his life, not with the
view of their being read by Scotchmen only,
but also by natives of England, and of other
countries where the English language is spoken
or understood.
Robert Burns was, in reality, what he has been
represented to be, a Scottish peasant. To ren-
der the incidents of his humble story generally
intelligible, it seems, therefore, advisable to pre-
fix some observations on the character and situa-
tion of the order to which he belonged a class
of men distinguished by many peculiarities: by
this means we shall form a more correct notion
of the advantages with which he started, and of
the obstacles which he surmounted. A few ob-
servations on the Scottish peasantry will not,
perhaps, be found unworthy of attention in
other respects : and the subject is, in a great
measure, new. Scotland has produced persons
of high distinction in every branch of philoso-
phy and literature; and her history, while a
separate and independent nation, has been suc-
cessfully explored. But the present character
of the people was not then formed ; the nation
then presented features similar to those which
the feudal system and the catholic religion had
diffused over Europe, modified, indeed, by the
peculiar nature of her territory and climate.
The
PREFATORY REMARKS. 3
The Reformation, by which such important
changes were produced on the national charac-
ter, was speedily followed by the Accession of
the Scottish monarchs to the English throne j
and the period which elapsed from that Acces-
sion to the Union has been rendered memorable,
chiefly, by those bloody convulsions in which
both divisions of the island were involved, and
which, in a considerable degree, concealed from
the eye of the historian the domestic history
of the people, and the gradual variations in
their condition and manners. Since the Union,
Scotland, though the seat of two unsuccessful
attempts to restore the House of Stuart to the
throne, has enjoyed a comparative tranquillity ;
and it is since this period that the present cha-
racter of her peasantry has been in a great mea-
sure formed, though the political causes affect-
ing it are to be traced to the previous acts of her
separate legislature.
A slight acquaintance with the peasantry of
Scotland will serve to convince an unprejudiced
observer, that they possess a degree of intelli-
gence not generally found among the same class
of men in the other countries of Europe. In the
very humblest condition of the Scottish pea-
sants, every one can read, and most persons are
more or less skilled in writing and arithmetic ;
and, under the disguise of their uncouth appear-
B 2 ance,
4 PREFATORY REMARKS.
ance, and of their peculiar manners and dialect,
a stranger will discover that they possess a curio-
sity, and have obtained a degree of information,
corresponding to these acquirements.
These advantages they owe to the legal pro-
vision made by the parliament of Scotland in
1646, for the establishment of a school in every
parish throughout the kingdom, for the express
purpose of educating the poor ; a law which
may challenge comparison with any act of legis-
lation to be found in the records of history, whe-
ther we consider the wisdom of the ends in view,
the simplicity of the means employed, or the
provisions made to render these means effectual
to their purpose. This excellent statute was re-
pealed on the accession of Charles II. in 1660,
together with all the other laws passed during
the commonwealth, as not being sanctioned by
the royal assent. It slept during the reigns of
Charles and James, but was re-enacted precisely
in the same terms, by the Scottish parliament,
after the Revolution in 1696; and this is the
last provision on the subject. Its effects on the
national character may be considered to have
commenced about the period of the Union ; and
doubtless it co-operated with the peace and se-
curity arising from that happy event, in pro-
ducing the extraordinary change in favour of
industry and good morals, which the character
of
PREFATORY REMARKS. 5
of the common people of Scotland has since un-
dergone.*
The church-establishment of Scotland hap*
pily coincides with the institution just men-
tioned, which may be called its school-establish-
ment. The clergyman, being every where resi-
dent in his particular parish, becomes the na-
tural patron and superintendent of the parish-
school, and is enabled in various ways to pro-
mote the comfort of the teacher, and the profi-
ciency of the scholars. The teacher himself is
often a candidate for holy orders, who, during
the long course of study and probation required
in the Scottish church, renders the time which
can be spared from his professional studies, use-
ful to others as well as to himself, by assuming
the respectable character of a schoolmaster. It
is common for the established schools, even in
the country parishes of Scotland, to enjoy the
means of classical instruction ; and many of
the farmers, and some even of the cottagers,
submit to much privation, that they may ob-
tain, for one of their sons at least, the preca-
rious advantage of a learned education. The
difficulty to be surmounted arises, indeed, not
from the expense of instructing their children,
but from the charge of supporting them. In
the country parish-schools, the English lan-
guage
* See Appendix, No. I. Note A.
6 PREFATORY REMARKS.
guage, writing, and accounts, are generally
taught at the rate of six shillings, and Latin at
the rate of ten or twelve shillings, per annum.
In the towns the prices are somewhat higher.
It would be improper in this place to inquire
minutely into the degree of instruction received
at these seminaries, or to attempt any precise
estimate of its effects, either on the individuals
who are the subjects of this instruction, or on
the community to which they belong. That it
is on the whole favourable to industry and mo-
rals, though doubtless with some individual ex-
ceptions, seems to be proved by the most strik-
ing and decisive appearance; and it is equally
clear, that it is the cause of that spirit of emi-
gration and of adventure so prevalent among
the Scotch. Knowledge has, by Lord Verulam,
been denominated power ; by others it has, with
less propriety, been denominated virtue or hap-
piness : we may with confidence consider it has
motion. A human being, in proportion as he
is informed, has his wishes enlarged, as well as
the means of gratifying those wishes. He may
be considered as taking within the sphere of his
vision a large portion of the globe on which we
tread, and discovering advantage at a greater
distance on its surface. His desires or ambi-
tion, once excited, are stimulated by his ima-
gination y and distant and uncertain objects,
giving freer scope to the operation of this fa-
cutty,
PREFATORY REMARKS. 7
culty, often acquire, in the mind of the youth-
ful adventurer, an attraction from their very
distance and uncertainty. If, therefore, a
greater degree of instruction be given to the
peasantry of a country comparatively poor, in
the neighbourhood of other countries rich in
natural and acquired advantages ; and if the
barriers be removed that kept them separate ;
emigration from the former to the latter will
take place to a certain extent, by laws nearly
as uniform as those by which heat diffuses it-
self among surrounding bodies, or water finds
its level when left to its natural course. By the
articles of the Union, the barrier was broken
down which divided the two British nations,
and knowledge and poverty poured the adven-
turous natives of the north over the fertile
plains of England, and more especially, over
the colonies which she had settled in the east
and in the west. The stream of population
continues to flow from the north to the south ;
for the causes that originally impelled it, conti-
nue to operate ; and the richer country is con-
stantly invigorated by the accession of an in-
formed and hardy race of men, educated in po-
verty, and prepared for hardship and danger,
patient of labour, and prodigal of life.*
The
* See Appendix, No, I, Note B.
8 PREFATORY REMARKS.
The preachers of the Reformation in Scotland
were disciples of Calvin, and brought with them,
the temper as well as the tenets of that cele-
brated heresiarch. The presbyterian form of
worship and of church government was en-
deared to the people, from its being established
by themselves. It was endeared to them, also,
by the struggle it had to maintain with the Ca-
tholic and the Protestant episcopal churches,
over both of which, after a hundred years of
fierce, and sometimes bloody contention, it
finally triumphed, receiving the countenance
of government, and the sanction of law. Dur-
ing this long period of contention and of suf-
fering, the temper of the people became more
and more obstinate and bigoted ; and the nation
received that deep tinge of fanaticism, which
coloured their public transactions as well as
their private virtues, and of which evident
traces may be found in our own times. When
the public schools were established, the instruc-
tion communicated in them partook of the reli-
gious character of the people. The Catechism
of the Westminster Divines was the universal
school-book, and was put into the hands of the
young peasant as soon as he had acquired a
knowledge of his alphabet; and his first exer-
cise in the art of reading introduced him to the
most mysterious doctrines of the Christian faith.
This practice is continued in our own times.
After the Assembly's Catechism, the Proverbs of
Solomon,
PREFATORY REMARKS. 9
Solomon, and the New and Old Testament, fol-
low in regular succession -, and the scholar de-
parts, gifted with the knowledge of the sacred
writings, and receiving their doctrines accord-
ing to the interpretation of the Westminster
Confession of Faith. Thus, with the instruction
of infancy in the schools of Scotland, are blended
the dogmas of the national church ; and hence
the first and most constant exercise of inge-
nuity among the peasantry of Scotland, is dis-
played in religious disputation. With a strong
attachment to the national creed, is conjoined a
bigoted preference of certain forms of worship ;
the source of which would be often altogether
obscure, if we did not recollect that the cere-
monies of the Scottish Church were framed in
direct opposition, in every point, to those of the
Church of Rome.
The eccentricities of conduct, and singula-
rities of opinion and manners, which character-
ized the English sectaries in the last century,
afforded a subject for the comic muse of Butler,
whose pictures lose their interest, since their
archetypes are lost. Some of the peculiarities
common among the more rigid disciples of Cal-
vinism in Scotland, in the present times, have
given scope to the ridicule of Burns, whose hu-
mour is equal to Butler's, and whose drawings
from living manners are singularly expressive
and
10 PREFATORY REMARKS.
and exact. Unfortunately the correctness of
his taste did not always correspond with the
strength of his genius ; and hence some of the
most exquisite of his comic productions are ren-
dered unfit for the light.*
The information and the religious education
of the peasantry of Scotland, promote sedate-
ness of conduct, and habits of thought and re-
flection. These good qualities are not counter-
acted by the establishment of poor laws, which,
while they reflect credit on the benevolence, de-
tract from the wisdom of the English legisla-
ture. To make a legal provision for the inevi-
table distresses of the poor, who by age or dis-
ease are rendered incapable of labour, may in-
deed seem an indispensable duty of society ; and
if, in the execution of a plan for this purpose,
a distinction could be introduced, so as to ex-
clude from its benefits those whose sufferings
are produced by idleness or profligacy, such an
institution would perhaps be as rational as hu-
mane. But to lay a general tax on property for
the support of poverty, from whatever cause
proceeding, is a measure full of danger. It
must operate in a considerable degree as an in-
citement
* Holy Willie's Prayer, Rob the Rhymer's Welcome
to his Bastard Child, Epistle to J. Gowdie, the Holy
Tulzie, fyc.
PREFATORY REMARKS. 11
citement to idleness, and a discouragement to
industry. It takes away from vice and indo-
lence the prospect of their most dreaded conse-
quences, and from virtue and industry their pe-
culiar sanctions. In many cases it must ren-
der the rise in the price of labour, not a bless-
ing, but a curse to the labourer ; who, if there
be an excess in what he earns beyond his im-
mediate necessities, may be expected to devote
this excess to his present gratification ; trusting
to the provision made by law for his own and
his family's support, should disease suspend, or
death terminate his labours. Happily in Scot-
land, the same legislature which established a
system of instruction for the poor, resisted the
introduction of a legal provision for the support
of poverty ; the establishment of the first, and
the rejection of the last, were equally favour-
able to industry and good morals ; and hence it
will not appear surprising, if the Scottish pea-
santry have a more than usual share of prudence
and reflection, if they approach nearer than per-
sons of their order usually do, to the definition
of a man, that of " a being that looks before
and after." These observations must indeed
be taken with many exceptions : the favourable
operation of the causes just mentioned is coun-
teracted by others of an opposite tendency ; and
the subject, if fully examined, would lead to
discussions of great extent.
When
12 PREFATORY REMARKS.
When the Reformation was established in
Scotland, instrumental music was banished from
the churches, as savouring too much of " pro-
fane minstrelsy." Instead of being regulated
by an instrument, the voices of the congrega-
tion are led and directed by a person under the
name of a precentor - } and the people are all ex-
pected to join in the tune which he chooses for
the psalm which is to be sung. Church-music
is therefore a part of the education of the pea-
santry of Scotland, in which they are usually
instructed in the long winter-nights by the pa-
rish schoolmaster, who is generally the precen-
tor, or by itinerant teachers more celebrated for
their powers of voice. This branch of educa-
tion had, in the last reign, fallen into some neg-
lect, but was revived about thirty or forty
years ago, when the music itself was reformed
and improved. The Scottish system of psal-
mody is however radically bad. Destitute of
taste or harmony, it forms a striking contrast
with the delicacy and pathos of the profane
airs. Our poet, it will be found, was taught
church-music, in which, however, he made little
proficiency.
That dancing should also be very generally
a part of the education of the Scottish pea-
santry, will surprise those who have only seen
this description of menj and still more those
who
PREFATORY REMARKS. 13
who reflect on the rigid spirit of Calvinism with