elf would be an
honour; of his disinterestedness, of the fine impulses of his heart, and
the high aspirations of his spirit; of the intensity and idealism
necessary to maintain his soul above its circumstances; when we reflect
that he has expressed all these generous sentiments to the extent of
their constituting his intellectual life; that they have fallen from him
as jewels ... as if his soul had been a furnace for the purification of
precious metals, we are tempted to regard him as belonging to the elect
spirits of humanity, to those gifted with exceptional goodness. When we
recall what he suffered, what he surmounted, and what he has effected;
against what privations his genius struggled into birth and lived; the
perseverance of his apprenticeship; his intellectual exploits; and,
after all, his glory, we are inclined to maintain that what he failed to
accomplish or undertake is as nothing in comparison with his
achievements.... There is nothing left but to confess that the clay of
which he was made was thick with diamonds, and that his life was one of
the most valiant and the most noble a poet ever has lived.'

With Burns's own words we may fitly conclude. They are words not merely
to be read and admired, but to be remembered in our hearts and practised
in our lives--

'Then gently scan your brother Man,
Still gentler sister Woman;
Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human:
One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving _Why_ they do it;
And just as lamely can ye mark,
How far perhaps they rue it.

Who made the heart, 'tis He alone
Decidedly can try us,
He knows each chord--its various tone,
Each spring--its various bias:
Then at the balance let's be mute,
We never can adjust it;
What's _done_ we partly may compute,
But know not what's _resisted_'

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Robert Burns, by Gabriel Setoun

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBERT BURNS ***

***** This file should be named 30721.txt or 30721.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/2/30721/

Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one