hero sustaining the desertion of friends, the persecution of enemies, and the utmost malice of disastrous fortune. The scene, too, being partly laid in humble life, admitted that display of broad humour and exquisite pathos, with which he could, interchangeably and at pleasure, adorn his cottage views. Nor was the assemblage of familiar sentiments incompatible in Burns, with those of the most exalted dignity. In the inimitable tale of Tam o' Shanter, he has left us sufficient evidence of his abilities to combine the ludicrous with the awful, and even the horrible. No poet, with the exception of Shakspeare, ever possessed the power of exciting the most varied and discordant emotions with such rapid transitions. His humourous description of death in the poem on Dr. Hornbook borders on the terrific, and the witches' dance in the kirk of Alloa is at once ludicrous and horrible. Deeply must we then regret those avocations which diverted a fancy so varied and so vigorous, joined with language and expression suited to all its changes, from leaving a more substantial monument to his own fame, and to the honour of his country."

The cantata of the Jolly Beggars, which was not printed at all until some time after the poet's death, and has not been included in the editions of his works until within these few years, cannot be considered as it deserves, without strongly heightening our regret that Burns never lived to execute his meditated drama. That extraordinary sketch, coupled with his later lyrics in a higher vein, is enough to show that in him we had a master capable of placing the musical drama on a level with the loftiest of our classical forms. Beggar's Bush, and Beggar's Opera, sink into tameness in the comparison; and indeed, without profanity to the name of Shakspeare, it may be said, that out of such materials, even his genius could hardly have constructed a piece in which imagination could have more splendidly predominated over the outward shows of things-in which the sympathyawakening power of poetry could have been displayed more triumphantly under circumstances of the greatest difficulty. That remarkable performance, by the way, was an early production of the Mauchline period. I know nothing but the Tam o' Shanter that is calculated to convey so high an impression of what Burns might have done.

As to Burns's want of education and knowledge, Mr. Campbell may not have considered, but he must admit, that whatever Burns's opportunities had been at the time when he produced his first poems, such a man as he was not likely to be a hard reader, (which he certainly was), and a constant observer of men and manners, in a much wider circle of society than almost any other great poet has ever moved in, from three-and-twenty to eight-and-thirty, without having thoroughly removed any pretext for auguring unfavourably on that score, of what he might have been expected to produce in the more elaborate departments of his art, had his life been spared to the usual limits of humanity. In another way, however, I cannot help suspecting that Burns's enlarged knowledge, both of men and books, produced an unfavourable effect, rather than otherwise, on the exertions, such as they were, of his later years. His generous spirit was open to the impression of every kind of excellence; his lively imagination, bending its own vigour to whatever it touched, made him admire even what other people try to read in vain; and after travelling, as he did, over the general surface of our literature, he appears to have been somewhat startled at the consideration of what he himself had, in comparative ignorance, adventured, and to have been more intimidated than encouraged by the retrospect.

In most of the new departments in which he made some trial of his strength, (such, for example, as the moral epistle in Pope's vein, the heroic satire, &c.), he appears to have soon lost heart, and paused. There is indeed one magnificent exception in Tam o' Shanter-a piece which no one can understand without believing, that had Burns pursued that walk, and poured out his stores of traditionary lore, embellished with his extraordinary powers of description of all kinds, we might have had from his hand a series of national tales, uniting the quaint simplicity, sly humour, and irresistible pathos of another Chaucer, with the strong and graceful versification, and masculine wit and sense of another Dryden.

This was a sort of feeling that must have in time subsided. But let us not waste words in regretting what might have been, where so much is.— Burns, short and painful as were his years, has left behind him a volume in which there is inspiration for every fancy, and music for every mood; which lives, and will live in strength and vigour-" to soothe," as a generous lover of genius has said" the sorrows of how many a lover, to inflame the patriotism of how many a soldier, to fan the fires of how many a genius, to disperse the gloom of solitude, appease the agonies of pain, encourage virtue, and show vice its ugliness;"-a volume, in which, centuries hence, as now, wherever a Scotsman may wander, he will find the dearest consolation of his exile.-Already has

But

The mortal remains of the poet rest in Dumfries churchyard. For nineteen years they were covered by the plain and humble tombstone placed over them by his widow, bearing the inscription simply of his name. a splendid mausoleum having been erected by public subscription on the most elevated site which the churchyard presented, the remains were solemnly transferred thither on the 8th June 1815; the original tombstone having been sunk under the bottom of the mausoleum. This shrine of the poet is annually visited by many pilgrims. The inscription it bears is given. below. Another spiendid monumental edifice has also been erected to his memory on a commanding situation at the foot of the Carrick hills ir. Ayrshire, in the immediate vicinity of the old cottage where the poet was born; and such is the unceasing, nay daily increasing veneration of his admiring countrymen, that a third one, of singular beauty of design, is now in progress, upon a striking projection of that most picturesque eminence the Calton Hill of Edinburgh-The cut annexed to p. cxxxvi. exhibits a view, necessarily but an imperfect one, of the monument las mentioned.

See the Censura Literaria of Sir Egerton Brydges, vol. ii. p. 55 + Lord Byron's Child Harold, Canto iv. 36.

INSCRIPTION UPON THE POET'S MONUMENT IN DUMFRIES CHURCHYARD.

IN AETERNUM HONOREM

ROBERTI BURNS

POETARUM CALEDONIAE SUI AEVI LONGE PRINCIPIS

CUJUS CARMINA EXIMIA PATRIO SERMONE SCRIPTA

ANIMI MAGIS ARDENTIS VIQUE INGENII

QUAM ARTE VEL CULTU CONSPICUA

FACETIIS JUCUNDITATE LEPORE AFFLUENTIA
OMNIBUS LITTERARUM CULTORIBUS SATIS NOTA
CIVES SUI NECNON PLERIQUE OMNES

MUSARUM AMANTISSIMI MEMORIAMQUE VIRI

ARTE POETICA TAM PRAECLARI FOVENTES
HOC MAUSOLEUM

SUPER RELIQUIAS POETAE MORTALES

EXTRUENDUM CURAVERE

PRIMUM HUJUS AEDIFICH LAPIDEM

GULIELMUS MILLER ARMIGER

REIPUBLICAE ARCHITECTONICAE APUD SCOTOS

IN REGIONE AUSTRALI CURIO MAXIMUS PROVINCIALIS

GEORGIO TERTIO REGNANTE

GEORGIO WALLIARUM PRINCIPE

SUMMAM IMPERII PRO PATRE TENENTE

JOSEPHO GASS ARMIGERO DUMFRISIAE PRAEFECTO

THOMA F. HUNT LONDINENSI ARCHITECTO

POSUIT

NONIS JUNIIS ANNO LUCIS VMDCCCXV

SALUTIS HUMANAE MDCCCXV.

The many poetical effusions the Peot's death gave rise to, presents a wide field for selection. The elegiac verses by Mr. Roscoe of Liverpool have been preferred, as the most fitting sequel to his eventful life.

ON

THE DEATH OF BURNS.