Life of Robert BurnsAmerican book exchange, 1880 - 52 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
50 cents 75 cents 9 cents Acme edition admiration affection AKC7460 Stanford University Aldus edition Allan Ramsay AMERICAN BOOK EXCHANGE beauty Biography black and gold Bonamy Price bourgeois type Brevier type brother Burns's clear cloth complete Dugald Stewart Dumfries Edinburgh English farm favor feeling genius gift gilt top glory half Russia heart heroic History honor Humor John Dryden less light literary literature live Long primer type look Magazine man's Mauchline means mind moral Mossgiel nature ness never noble nonpareil type perhaps pica type pity poems poet poetic poetry poor postage 13 postage 7 cents postage 9 Price rank Religion Robert Burns rustic Scotland Scottish Scottish literature seems Shakspeare Small pica society song soul spirit Stanford University Libraries strong Tam O'Shanter thing THOMAS CARLYLE thought tion true poet truth virtue volume words worldly writings
Popular passages
Page 38 - remember the celebrated Mr. Dugald Stewart. Of course, we youngsters sat silent, looked and listened. The only thing I remember which was remarkable in Burns's manner, was the effect produced upon him by a print of Bunbury's representing a soldier lying dead on the snow, his dog sitting in misery on one side—on the other,
Page 30 - or laughs with the loudest or slyest mirth ; and yet he is sweet and soft, "sweet • as the smile when fond lovers meet, and soft as their parting tear !" If we. farther take into account the immense variety of his .subjects ; how, from the loud flowing revel in Willie
Page 15 - commonest and rudest ; the mere work done is no measure of his strength. A dwarf behind his steam engine may remove mountains ; but no dwarf will hew them down with the pick-axe ; and lie must be a Titan that hurls them abroad with his arms. It is in this last shape that Burns presents himself.
Page 25 - in them, that one should be particularly pleased with this thing, or struck with that, which, on minds of a different cast, makes no extraordinary impression. I have some favorite flowers in spring, among which are the mountain-daisy, the hare-bell, the fox-glove,
Page 26 - with. Doubtless this stern hymn was singing itself, as he formed it, through the soul of Burns ; but to the external ear, it should be sung with the throat of the whirlwind. So long as there is warm blood in the heart of a Scotchman or man, it will move in fierce thrills under
Page 24 - force is ever visible in his judgments, as in his feelings and volitions. Professor Stewart says of him, with some surprise: "All the faculties of Burns's mind were, as far as I could judge, equally vigorous ; and his predilection for poetry was rather the result of
Page 49 - of Religion ; and was, with these, becoming obsolete in the minds of men. His heart, indeed, is alive with a trembling adoration, but there is no temple in his understanding. He lives in darkness and in the shadow of doubt. His religion, at best, is an anxious wish ; like that of Rabelais, "a great Perhaps.
Page 17 - A true Poet-soul, for it needs but to be struck, and the sound it yields will be music 1 But observe him chiefly as he mingles with his brother men. What warm, all-comprehending fellowfeeling, what trustful, boundless love, what generous exaggeration of the object loved ! His rustic friend, his nut-brown maiden, are no longer mean and h
Page 45 - exists, except in the cases of kindred or other legal affinity ; it is in reality no longer expected, or recognized as a virtue among men. A close observer of manners has pronounced " Patronage," that is, pecuniary or other economic furtherance, to be "twice cursed;" cursing him that gives and him that takes ! And thus,
Page 16 - as di 1 this intrinsically nobler, gentler, and perhaps greater soul, wasting itself away in a hopeless struggle with base entanglements, which coiled closer and closer round him, till only death opened him an outlet.- Conquerors are a race with whom the world could well dispense ; nor can the hard intellect, the