The Genius and Character of Burns Author:John Wilson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: breaking in upon the darkness that did too long and too deeply overshadow his lot! Some glorious glimpses of it his prophetic soul did see ; witness " The Vision... more »," or that somewhat humbler but yet high strain, in which, bethinking him of the undefined aspirations of his boyhood he said to himself— " Even then a wish, I mind its power, A wish that to my latest hour, Shall strongly heave my breast, That I, for poor auld Scotland's sake, Some useful plan or book would make, Or sing a sang at least! " The rough bur-thistle spreading wide Amang the bearded bear, I turned the weeder-clips aside And spared the symbol dear." Such hopes were with him in his " bright and shining youth," surrounded as it was with toil and trouble that could not bend his brow from its natural upward inclination to the sky ; and such hopes, let us doubt it not, were also with him in his dark and faded prime, when life's lamp burned low indeed, and he was willing at last, early as it was, to shut his eyes on this dearly beloved but sorely distracting world. With what strong and steady enthusiasm is the anniversary of Burns's birth-day celebrated, not only all over his own native land, but in every country to which an adventurous spirit has carried her sons ! On such occasions, nationality is a virtue. For what else is the " Memory of Burns," but the memory of all that dignifies and adorns the region that gave him birth ? Not till that region is shorn of all its beams—its honesty, its independence, its moral worth, its genius, and its piety, will the name of Burns " Die on her ear, a faint unheeded sound." But it has an immortal life in the hearts of young and old, whether sitting at gloaming by the ingle-side, or on the stone seat in the open air, as the sun is going down, or walki...« less