No More Learning

A bookseller accompanied us. He showed us the outside of
Burns's house, where he had lived the last three years of his life,
and where he died. It has a mean appearance, and is in a bye
situation, whitewashed. . . . Went on to visit his grave. He lies at a
corner of the churchyard, and his second son, Francis Wallace, beside
him. There is no stone to mark the spot; but a hundred guineas have
been collected, to be expended on some sort of monument.

'There,' said the bookseller, pointing to a pompous monument, 'there
lies Mr. Such-a-one. I have forgotten his name. A remarkably clever
man; he was an attorney, and hardly ever lost a cause he undertook.
Burns made many a lampoon upon him, and there they rest, as you
see. '

We looked at the grave with melancholy and painful reflections,
repeating to each other his own verses.
'Is there a man whose judgment clear,
Can others teach the way to steer,
Yet runs himself life's mad career,
Wild as the wave?
Here let him pause, and through a tear
Survey this grave.

The poor Inhabitant below
Was quick to learn, and wise to know,
And keenly felt the friendly glow,
And softer flame;
But thoughtless follies laid him low
And stained his name. '

"I cannot take leave of the country which we passed through to-day
without mentioning that we saw the Cumberland Mountains, within
half-a-mile of Ellisland, Burns's house, the last view we had of them.
Drayton has prettily described the connection which this neighbourhood
has with ours when he makes Skiddaw say:

'Seurfell [E] from the sky,
That Anadale [F] doth crown, with a most amorous eye,
Salutes me every day, or at my pride looks grim,
Oft threatening me with clouds, as I oft threatening him! '

"These lines recurred to William's memory, and we talked of Burns, and
of the prospect he must have had, perhaps from his own door, of
Skiddaw and his companions, including ourselves in the fancy, that we
_might_ have been personally known to each other, and he have looked
upon those objects with more pleasure for our sakes. "

Ed.


[Footnote E: Criffel. --Ed. ]


[Footnote F: Annandale. --Ed. ]





* * * * *





THOUGHTS SUGGESTED THE DAY FOLLOWING, ON THE BANKS OF NITH, NEAR THE
POET'S RESIDENCE


Composed 1803. [A]--Published 1842




Too frail to keep the lofty vow
That must have followed when his brow
Was wreathed--"The Vision" [B] tells us how--
With holly spray,
He faultered, drifted to and fro, 5
And passed away.

Well might such thoughts, dear Sister, throng
Our minds when, lingering all too long,
Over the grave of Burns we hung
In social grief--10
Indulged as if it were a wrong
To seek relief.

But, leaving each unquiet theme
Where gentlest judgments may misdeem,
And prompt to welcome every gleam 15
Of good and fair,
Let us beside this limpid Stream
Breathe hopeful air.

Enough of sorrow, wreck, and blight;
Think rather of those moments bright 20
When to the consciousness of right
His course was true,
When Wisdom prospered in his sight
And virtue grew.