o young to
profit much by his lessons in grammar, but Robert made some proficiency
in it--a circumstance of considerable weight in the unfolding of his
genius and character, as he soon became remarkable for the fluency and
correctness of his expression, and read the few books that came in his
way with much pleasure and improvement; for even then he was a reader
when he could get a book.'

After the family removed to Mount Oliphant, the brothers attended Mr.
Murdoch's school for two years longer, until Mr. Murdoch was appointed
to a better situation, and the little school was broken up. Thereafter
the father looked after the education of his boys himself, not only
helping them with their reading at home after the labours of the day,
but 'conversing familiarly with them on all subjects, as if they had
been men, and being at great pains, as they accompanied him on the
labours of the farm, to lead conversation to such subjects as might tend
to increase their knowledge or confirm them in virtuous habits.' Among
the books he borrowed or bought for them at that period were Salmon's
_Geographical Grammar_, Derham's _Physico-Theology_, Ray's _Wisdom of
God in the Works of Creation_, and Stackhouse's _History of the Bible_.
It was about this time, too, that Robert became possessed of _The
Complete Letter-Writer_, a book which Gilbert declared was to Robert of
the greatest consequence, since it inspired him with a great desire to
excel in letter-writing, and furnished him with models by some of the
first writers in our language. Perhaps this book was a great gain. It is
questionable. What would Robert Burns's letters have been had he never
seen a Complete Letter-Writer, and never read 'those models by some of
the first writers in our language'? Easier and more natural, we are of
opinion; and he might have written fewer. Those in the Complete
Letter-Writer style we could easily have spared. His teacher, Mr.
Murdoch, furnishes some excellent examples of the stilted epistolary
style that was then fashionable.

'But now the plains of Mount Oliphant began to whiten, and Robert was
summoned to relinquish the pleasing scenes that surrounded the grotto of
Calypso, and, armed with a sickle, to seek glory by signalising himself
in the fields of Ceres.' Though Robert Burns never perpetrated anything
like this, his models were not without their pernicious effect on his
prose compositions.

When Robert was about fourteen years old, he and G